Due to the focus on traditional banking products and the austere financial supervision, the Polish banking system has weathered down the crises of the last two decades very well and remains well capitalised and non-volatile. Still, Poland is viewed as underbanked according to euro-zone standards, although the banking sector plays a very important role for the Polish economy - its assets hovered around 90% of GDP in 2017. Poland's 35 commercial banks employ over 164,000 persons, with wages significantly higher than the country average.

The GVAs of the Philippines’ real estate and construction sectors grew steadily between 2013 and 2017, reaching PHP 1,941bn for Construction and PHP 2,085bn for Real Estate and Other Business Activities in the latter year. The good performance of these sectors was mostly the result of healthy domestic demand for residential and office space, alongside government-backed infrastructure development programmes. A combination of relatively low property prices and growing incomes, parallel to urbanisation and a rise in modern lifestyles centred on nuclear families, has driven demand in the housing segment. The office segment has been pushed forward by the rapid development of IT-BPO* activities in the country, and by booming tourism, which needs more shopping malls, gaming centres, and entertainment facilities to maintain its positive trajectory. IT-BPO and tourism are expected to be the major drivers of real estate growth for the foreseeable future.

Latin America is well integrated in the global automotive supply chain, being an important manufacturing and export hub for motor vehicles – the legacy of active government policies for the development of domestic production and comprehensive free trade agreements. In 2017, the region accounted for 7.5% of global motor vehicle output and exported vehicles for a record-high USD 81.5bn, mainly destined to countries in the Americas and Europe, but also to Africa and Asia. Moreover, the relatively young and growing population, which reached 653mn people at end-2017, the rising purchasing power of households, and the government focus on development of the transport infrastructure have turned Latin America into one of the fastest growing new vehicle markets in the world, absorbing 6.3% of the global vehicle sales in 2017.

The oil and gas sector plays an important role in Indonesia’s economy, generating 5.1% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and earning nearly a tenth of export revenues in 2017. The sector was responsible for 5% of the overall central government budget revenue in 2017, while state subsidies accounted for 4.9% of total central government expenditures. Indonesia is the secondbiggest oil producer in the Asia Pacific region and the third-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting country in the world.

The Czech automotive sector’s GVA represents slightly over 5% of the country’s GDP. According to the Czech Automotive Industry Association (SAP), car manufacturers make up a quarter of the country's industrial output and 22% of its exports. Motor vehicle manufacturing directly contributes 9% to total economic output. The country is the fifth largest passenger car and the second largest bus producer in Europe. The Czech brand Skoda was the tenth bestselling passenger car (in terms of new registrations) in Europe in 2017. The sector also employed around 168,000 people in 2016, while indirectly it could provide employment to as many as 400,000 people.

In 2017, written premiums in Colombia rose by 5.5% in real terms and 8% y/y in nominal terms, despite a backdrop of slow economic activity. In comparison, globally the value of written premiums grew by just 1.5% in real terms in 2017, according to a report by the Switzerland-based insurer Swiss Re. During the 2008-2017 period, the insurance sector in Colombia grew faster than its GDP, driving up penetration rates. Despite this positive performance, insurance penetration lags behind that of developed countries and regional leaders such as Brazil and Chile. This, coupled with government efforts to improve the country’s solvency framework, offers lucrative opportunities for domestic and foreign investors.

The Colombian automotive sector is highly skewed towards the production of motorcycles. As motorcycles are the preferred mode of transport of the population, the country has emerged as the second-largest producer of two-wheel motor vehicles in South America, after Brazil. As to four-wheel vehicles, although Colombia is the third most populous country in the region with 49.3mn inhabitants at end-2017, both the scale of the production base and the size of the domestic market remain small. This is explained by the relatively low disposable income of the population compared to the regional average, which limits purchases of large durable goods, such as motor vehicles. The domestic automotive industry also features low levels of internationalisation, which makes it vulnerable to the ups and downs of the national economy. However, the industry is not able to meet local demand and Colombia’s dependence on imported motor vehicles and auto parts is extremely high.

China’s transportation sector is almost entirely run by state-owned corporations, as its development is viewed as a major driver for the country’s economic growth. In the railways subsector, there was extensive construction of new high-speed rail (HSR) lines, the total length growing by more than 2,000 km to 25,000 km in 2017. In the air transport subsector, the major players have been increasingly active in expanding their aircraft fleets to meet the rapidly growing passenger demand, especially demand for international travel. The shipping subsector is strategically important for China, since it is a major generator of growth and vital for China’s exporting industries. Investment opportunities exist mainly for companies supplying technologies and high-tech products to the sector.

The revenue of China’s textile sector in the second quarter of 2018 plummeted by 25.7% y/y to RMB 818.8bn, due to decreased sales of textiles. With the stringent environmental protection policies of the Chinese government toward some of the most polluting sectors, including textile manufacturing, the output of Chinese textile mills continued to decline substantially. During the second quarter of 2018 the production of yarn plunged by 20.9% y/y to 8.7mn tonnes.

In the second quarter of 2018 the revenue of China’s rubber products sector contracted by 24.7% y/y to RMB 220.3bn, as a result of the decline in production and sales volumes. In this period, the sales revenue of the largest subsector – tyres – shrank by 26.5% y/y to RMB 119.4bn. The respective revenues of the second and third largest subsectors - rubber plate, hose & belting, and rubber accessories - went down by 21.4% y/y and 22% y/y, totalling RMB 29.3bn and RMB 19.8bn.