Wondering what 2015 has in store for your business? Well fear not, the Countries & Consumers team at Euromonitor have compiled a list of their expert predictions for regions and individual countries for 2015. We’ll revisit these in another article at the end of 2015 to check which of them proved correct.
- A greater number of countries will see rising income inequality in 2015.
- China’s consumer spending growth is set to slow in 2015, despite the government’s efforts to promote a consumer-led economy.
- Nevertheless, Chinese consumers will reach a new level of sophistication and maturity, increasingly selecting products that satisfy their individual needs rather than simply 'keeping up with the Wangs'.
- In the US, tech-savvy Hispennials (Hispanic Millennials) are set to become the market's most active and influential digital consumers.
- Consumers will show themselves more willing to spend on convenience.
- As a response to increasing consumer concern about safeguarding privacy, a greater number of brands will offer privacy as a key selling point.
- Multi-nationals’ interest in Cuba as a consumer market will increase.
- Prices for key commodities are expected to remain weak through much of 2015, creating unprecedented challenges for countries reliant on commodity exports.
- The oil price in particular is likely to remain low by recent standards but will trend upwards from its current position.
- Mobile Internet users will become more important as consumers than desktop users.
- Weak oil prices will put pressure on the cost-effectiveness of renewables and fracking.
- The Chinese economy will avoid a hard-landing.
- Wages in China will rise significantly in real terms.
- Western digital majors will expand into the Indian and Chinese Internet markets.
- The eurozone will remain mired in lowflation but will avoid outright persistent deflation.
- Of the central banks governing the USA, UK and the eurozone, the UK will be the first to raise interest rates from record lows in 2015.
- Russia will experience a further deterioration in the quality of its business environment, impacting investment.
- Penetration of video-on-demand will overtake the usage of traditional satellite and cable services in some markets.
- Japan will experience a continued economic crisis in 2015, performing well below the UK and USA, which will be reflected in diverging monetary policy decisions.
- Italy’s economy will remain below pre-crisis 2007 levels in 2015, making it the only G7 economy not to have yet recovered from the global economic downturn of 2008-2009.
- EU migration policy will dominate the general election campaign in the UK in the first half of 2015.