Most of Iran's oil and gas production, processing and distribution are carried out by state-owned companies run directly by the Ministry of Petroleum. Foreign partners, particularly national oil companies, have a limited presence in the Iranian energy sector, with most foreign oil company (IOC) involvement currently from national oil companies. The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) dominates all upstream and downstream oil and gas activities. Refining and distribution activities are carried out under the control of state-run National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company, which was separated from the NIOC in 1991. The company operates nine crude oil refineries, oil pipelines and more than 1,000 fuel retail outlets. Gas developments are carried out by the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) while petrochemicals production and distribution are the responsibility of the National Iranian Petrochemical Company.

Kazakhstan's transport segment will outperform the country's broader construction sector over the next five years, largely on the back of an influx of Chinese capital aiming to boost the country's logistics capacity. Conversely, the country's energy and utilities sector will grow at a more modest pace owing to a lack of big ticket projects moving through the construction pipeline

In June 2018, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Agriculture announced plans to double production of lamb and beef in the coming decade. During the first five months of 2018, the country produced 107.7 thousand tonnes of meat products, marking 14.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth. In 2017, Kazakhstan exported around 4,000 tonnes of beef. The government expects to significantly boost the export volumes to China in 2018, as the latter has recently removed some of the earlier restrictions on meat imports from Kazakhstan (Globalmeatnews.com)

Kazakhstan will see steady iron ore production growth as key low-cost mines ramp up output over the coming years. Strengthening trade links between the Kazakh and Chinese governments are likely to provide local miners with further capital to fund expansion, which will support moderate growth in production to 2027.

The Law on Subsoil and Subsoil Use (Subsoil Use Law) is the key legislation governing oil and gas exploration and production in Kazakhstan. The law has been amended several times, most notably in 2010. The law notably establishes strict local content requirements. It also establishes the government's right to pre-empt any sale of oil and gas assets.

Generally speaking, Lebanon's pharmaceutical overall market size is small by regional - as well as global - standards, limited by a population of around 6mn. Lebanon's pharmaceutical market is calculated to have been worth LBP2.75trn (USD1.82bn) in 2017, accounting for 3.5% of the country's GDP and 44% of total healthcare expenditure. This translates into per capita spending of USD299 - substantially higher than regional spending for Arab Gulf Levant countries. Most of the market is accounted for by prescription medicines, which represents 82% of the total value. This situation is supported by the widespread use of patented drugs (at 61% of total prescription spending, which is boosted by the fear of counterfeits and high per capita incomes) and relatively high prices of branded generic drugs. Nevertheless, cost-containment pressures and patent expirations are expected to contribute to higher usage of non-patented medicines in the future.

Malaysia's food and drink industry is substantial and is characterised by an increasing number of local industry products, such as snack foods, poultry, dairy products, eggs, tropical fruits and vegetables, soft drinks and beer.

We have revised down our forecast for new vehicle sales in Mexico to a contraction of 10.0% in 2018. This will see sales volumes reach a total of 1.4mn units by year-end 2018. Breaking down this forecast, we expect passenger car sales to fall 13.4%, light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales to experience a 5.7% contraction, while heavy truck and bus sales grow 14% and 9.8% respectively. In 2018, we expect sales of passenger cars and LCVs (which includes pickup trucks and SUVs) to decline as rising borrowing costs, high fuel prices and uncertainty caused by the renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the mid-2018 presidential election weigh on consumer spending. For heavier commercial vehicles, we expect a boom in sales in 2018 due to regulation changes coming into effect on January 1 2019, which require new heavy commercial vehicles to be either Euro VI or EPA 2010 compliant. The implementation of this regulation will prompt heavy vehicle fleet owners to rush to buy cheaper Euro IV vehicles before the deadline.

The medical device market is now comparable to Brazil in US dollar terms. Other medical devices and consumables have the largest market shares. Market growth is likely to benefit from higher economic growth, despite uncertainty around AMLO and NAFTA renegotiations. The private sector accounts for over 60% of the medical device market. Mexico is the leading Latin American medical device exporter and importer. Mexico is a popular manufacturing base for US medical device companies. Medical device maquiladora activity concentrates along the US-border.

The introduction of private capital into Mexico's oil and gas sector will revive upstream activity throughout our forecast period. While the 2013 reform package did not challenge the dominant narrative of the country, namely, that the state and its people are the owners of Mexico's hydrocarbons, it did create a framework which allowed private actors to play a significant role moving forward. We believe these measures, coupled with vast, untapped reserves, will bolster investment despite a lower oil price environment, reversing more than a decade of oil production declines.