Remaining in negative territory for the second year running, the global alcoholic drinks market declined 0.2% in 2016. A basically stagnant top line growth figure is, however, a marked improvement on the bleak performance of the previous year – primarily a result of considerably reduced rates of decline in Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe. Further market consolidation took place in 2016, with leader A-B InBev seeing its share of alcoholic drinks rise to 21.5%, mainly through acquiring SABMiller.