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Emerging markets on the mend, says Agility

[ January 22, 2018   //   ]

Emerging markets growth rose to 4.6% in 2017 from 4.3% in the two previous years, says freight forwarder Agility in a report.

Agility, which specialises in developing world countries, said that markets were driven by stronger growth – and therefore demand – in advanced economies, a modest rebound in world commodity prices and improvement in some of the major developing world economies such as Brazil and Nigeria, along with strong than expected growth in some others such as Turkey and Egypt.

However, in launching the ninth edition of its Emerging Markets Logistics Index, produced in partnership with consultants Ti, Agility warned that possible downsides included mounting debt levels in many countries, the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by US president Donald Trump and political uncertainty in Saudi Arabia.

The report’s authors also said that smaller firms were expected to spearhead growth in developing world markets, helped by online marketplaces and new technology.

Brexit is a potential source of uncertainty, especially for English-speaking nations that historically did a lot of business with the UK. However, optimism has recovered since last year. Then, 69% of respondents said they were worried that Brexit could signal a retreat from free trade, whereas in this year’s survey 44.6% said they thought emerging markets would be unaffected by Brexit and 25.4% said they stood to gain.

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