Chile’s banking sector is highly concentrated, with the top five banks accounting for 77.2% and 77.8% of the outstanding loans and deposits, respectively, as of September 2018. However, compared to September 2017, when the five biggest players controlled 77.6% and 78.6% of total loans and deposits, the level of concentration has decreased slightly, mainly due to the rapid expansion of Canada’s Scotiabank. This has further propelled sector competition and the fight for market share amongst the largest banks. Moreover, the large underserved population in regions outside Santiago Metropolitan creates ample growth opportunities for both existing and new players.

Brazil’s mining sector features a high level of concentration, especially in respect of most metallic mining outputs, with most production in the hands of a small number of large firms with capital of mixed origins. Regulation is an important factor in the outlook for the sector, since the market is still adapting to the new dispositions of the Mining Code, approved in June 2018. Non-metallic mineral activity shows a more fragmented structure, due to the prominence of civil construction aggregates in sub-sector output. In these products it is a big advantage to be close to the consumer, which favours both small companies and local ones.

Brazil’s consumer goods and retail sector is fragmented, featuring intensifying competition by both domestic and foreign companies. In line with the economic recovery in the country that gained speed in 2018, several retailers announced major investment plans to expand their operations in fastgrowing retail channels, such as cash & carry and convenience stores; in fragmented product segments (e.g. pet food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals); and in regions with low penetration of modern retail formats. E-commerce – the fastest growing retail channel – was also at the centre of the investment strategies of both brick-and-mortar retailers and purely online retailers.

The 2015-2016 economic recession unleashed a restructuring process in Brazil’s chemical sector. Several debt-laden incumbent players, including state-run companies Petrobras and Vale scaled back investment plans and put up assets for sale to improve their financial situation. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized companies increased their market positions through organic growth and acquisitions. Additionally, with the uptick in the economy since 2017, a number of strategic foreign players have found opportunities to expand their positions in chemical segments with high growth prospects, such as thermoplastic resins, fertilisers, fibres, coatings and pharmaceuticals.

The favourable weather conditions in 2017 that led to a record crop season of soybean and maize impacted crop producers in a positive way. Both domestic and international crop sales registered an increase, generating higher revenues for farmers. More capital was invested in machinery, equipment and new technologies for monitoring and managing production. The increased supply, however, caused a fall in prices, especially of soybean and maize. Although this downward trend in prices affected farmers’ margins, it had a positive impact on livestock producers, due to cheaper feed inputs.

In terms of subscriber numbers, the mobile telephony market is dominated by three companies with fairly similar shares. These are Claro (a subsidiary of Mexican telecom group America Movil); Movistar (a unit of the Spanish telecom group Telefonica); and Personal (a subsidiary of Telecom Argentina). These had a combined market share of 98.4% at end-2017. In recent years, competition between the three main players has intensified, mainly in the field of mobile broadband services – the fastest growing ICT segment in Argentina. As of December 2017, there were 31.6mn users of mobile broadband in the country, equivalent to 51.1% of total mobile telephony subscribers. Moreover, the number of 4G mobile telephony subscribers reached 22.5mn, or 71.2% of all mobile broadband connections. This has forced local telecom operators to invest in expansion of their coverage and improving the quality of their 4G networks, as well as to offer attractive pre-paid plans, with a special focus on mobile broadband services.

A home to 7.5% of the world’s oil reserves and 7.1% of the global natural gas reserves, Africa is an important player in the hydrocarbon industry. The continent’s share in global oil production stood at 8.7% in 2017, slightly up from 8.4% in the previous year. Africa’s contribution to the global natural gas production was smaller, with the continent accounting for a share of 6.1% in 2017, up from 5.8% in 2016. After declining for four straight years, Africa’s crude oil production increased by 5% y/y to 8,072 mbbl/d in 2017, according to data published in the 2018 edition of BP Statistical Review of World Energy. The annual growth was the strongest among all oil producing regions and well above the global oil production increase of just 0.7% y/y. The major contributors were Nigeria and Libya, which were the only ones among Africa’s top five oil producers to register higher production than in 2016. The others witnessed a decline, mostly in line with production cuts agreed to by OPEC members. Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, registered a 4.5% rise in production to 1,988 mbbl/d in 2017. Libya more than doubled oil supply to 865 mbbl/d, helping it become Africa’s fourth largest oil producer in 2017, moving Egypt to the fifth position. Tunisia experienced the steepest drop of 11.8% y/y, pumping 53 mbbl/d of crude oil in 2017. South Sudan witnessed another decline in oil production in 2017 but as the country emerged from a five-year civil war with the peace deal agreed in August 2018, prospects for the oil sector look encouraging.

Data centers are built, operated, and maintained to process a vast amount of both customer and business data. The number of people accessing the internet has grown significantly in the past decade from about 1.5 billion in 2008 to 4.1 billion in 2017 around the world. Consequently, the amount of data generated has also grown by over 50 times because of the increasing use of desktop systems, smartphone penetration, social media, wearable devices, and connected devices.

Visual impairment is a broad term, which involves moderate or severe vision loss or complete blindness. It is a global health concern that has a negative impact on both physical and mental health. Preventive blindness, which was considered among common ailments, will soon emerge as a major challenge to the global healthcare system. Blindness and visual impairment necessitate significant costs as they not only constitute high productivity loss but also increase the burden on healthcare spending significantly. According to the IAPB, about 36 million people were categorized as blind, and about 217 million people were estimated to suffer from moderate to severe visual impairment (MVSI) in 2014. According to the WHO, uncorrected errors, especially myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism, constituted 43% of overall visual impairment cases in 2014.

Predictions has been published since 2001. Back in 2009 and 2010, we wrote about the launch of exciting new fourth-generation wireless networks called 4G (aka LTE). A decade later, we’re now making predictions about 5G networks that will be launching this year. Not surprisingly, our forecast for the first year of 5G is that it will look a lot like the first year of 4G in terms of units, revenues, and rollout. But while the forecast may look familiar, the high data speeds and low latency 5G provides could spur the evolution of mobility, health care, manufacturing, and nearly every industry that relies on connectivity. In previous reports, we also wrote about 3D printing (aka additive manufacturing). Our tone was positive but cautious, since 3D printing was growing but also a bit overhyped. But time has passed. Reality has caught up to—or in some ways even surpassed—the earlier enthusiasm, and we now have new and impressive forecasts for that industry. We also wrote about eSports, which has evolved from a cult phenomenon to simply “phenomenon,” with big implications for media companies and advertisers.