... foreign direct investment.

This is forecast to reach record levels in the period through to 2015, the Bank predicts, reaching US$54bn (£35.3bn) annually by 2015.

The report said strong economic growth in Africa had significantly reduced the extent of poverty in the sub-continent over the past decade.

The Bank's provisional figures show that the proportion of Africans living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 58% to 48.5% between 1996 and 2010

World Bank economist, Punam Chuhan-Pole comments: "If properly harnessed to unleash their full potential, these trends hold the promise of more growth, much less poverty, and accelerating shared prosperity for African countries in the foreseeable future." 

However, resource-rich countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Gabon were singled out as making less progress in combating poverty than other African countries with fewer natural resources.

Read the original unabridged BBC article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... that the globe's top three economies [US, China and Japan] will remain in the same relative positions for the next ten years.

But by 2022 the Chinese economy, currently 53% of the size of the US economy, is predicted to reach 83% of the size of the US economy and catching up fast. CEBR also foresees that:

• The UK will overtake France in 2013 as 75% tax and euro woes drag that nation down;
   
• India will overhaul the UK in 2017 to become the largest Commonwealth economy;
   
• Indonesia will enter the elite Top Ten in 2022.

One of the unexpected results of this year’s WELT is that Brazil, which just managed to squeeze past the UK in 2011, again fell behind the UK in 2012 as a result of the weakness of its currency, the real. It is not forecast to overtake again until 2014.

Over the rest of the period to 2022, Brazil moves up another place in the League Table, overtaking Germany and France but being overtaken in turn by India.

Russia rose from 11th position in the league table in 2010 to ninth in 2011. In 2013, it will start to overtake large Western European economies and is predicted to reach world seventh position by 2022.

Read the original unabridged CEBR article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... 3.3 billion people in the middle class - nearly one billion of them Chinese citizens. 

This makes China a proving ground for global and local brands, opines Nielsen China's director of consumer research in an article written for China Daily.

Success stories of global brands adapting to the Chinese market, local brands rising to take the competitive edge or even some mid-tier brands successfully positioning themselves as premium are all around.

However, in the shadow of those successes are brands that fail due to the increasing competitiveness of the market. One of the key reasons for failure is that some brands simply do not understand what Chinese consumers really are and what they want, because the Chinese consumer has evolved.

Those living in the largest cities have become more sophisticated in their purchasing behavior, while a burgeoning middle class in the lower-tier cities are becoming "first-time" consumers, with incomes that enable them to make their lives more comfortable, buy homes and cars and discover new products.

It is time to meet the new Chinese consumer.

One of their vital characteristics is the evolving social breakdown of China's population. Chinese consumers are highly segmented, across different income levels and even city tiers.

Combined with China's economic resurgence and increasing disposable income, these different classes of consumers are moving into higher income brackets and are looking to affirm their new social status.

Read the original unabridged article here.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... "We wanted to understand how the future might play out in a more connected, communicative world.

"We looked at the learnings mature markets can take from newer world-stage markets and the way that global markets are identifying and potentially addressing the challenges they see ahead.

"This survey uniquely looks at the ways in which emerging markets are looking at the world and the opportunities ahead and demonstrates the potential impact of these countries on both emerging and developed markets in the years to come."

The report found "a number of key data points that validated what we already knew, but at the same time, there were significant new pockets of data that highlighted new trends and positions from across the various markets. 

For example:

• We knew from OECD studies that China and India are the major growth opportunities in the world today, and from the World Bank that skills and talent continue to be a challenge for all companies operating in emerging markets.
   
• What wasn’t clear until this study is the level of interest emerging market companies have in the experience of other emerging market companies, with 84% of the emerging markets companies in this study having looked to other emerging markets for growth opportunities and best practice.
   
• The survey also throws up some interesting information about the continued role of Russia as a member of the BRIC group. This study suggests that Russia is losing its prominence as an expansion destination, with more developed market organisations looking there than emerging market companies.
   
• The focus of markets when looking to expand is also revealing new insights. For example, 19% of UK companies are looking to invest in Poland and the survey shows that Singapore has an eclectic and global mindset when exploring new market opportunities. What the survey reveals is that some of our long-held assumptions about political ties or global proximity driving decisions no longer hold true.
   

Summarises the report: "The business leaders we spoke to operate in a range of mature and emerging markets across every major market sector, giving us a real understanding of the impact of communications and business in a rapidly changing world."

Read the original unabridged article here.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... operate fuel-efficient new aircraft to counter ever-increasing aviation fuel costs.

The latest prediction builds on Boeing's 2011 forecast that it would sell 33,500 new passenger aircraft and freighters worth $4 trillion by 2030.

Says the aero-giant: "Robust growth in China, India and other emerging markets is a major factor in the increased deliveries over the next 20 years."

Boeing forecasts that airline traffic overall will grow at a 5% annual rate over the next twenty years, with cargo traffic growing at a rate of 5.2 percent. And world airline fleets are expected to double over the next two decades.

Moreover, according to Boeing: "Low-cost carriers, with their ability to stimulate traffic with low fares, are growing faster than the market as a whole.

According to a report published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "The airline industry itself is a major economic force, both in terms of its own operations and its impacts on related industries such as aircraft manufacturing and tourism, to name but two. Few other industries generate the amount and intensity of attention given to airlines, not only among its participants but from government policy makers, the media, and almost anyone who has an anecdote about a particular air travel experience."

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... Russians buying 2.65 million new cars and light vehicles in 2011.

Improvement though this may be, it's still a long way short of the three million cars sold at the peak of the nation's market in 2008. In 2009 sales crashed to 1.5 million and have been slowly recovering since.

Thomas, however, remains optimistic. The market, he predicts, could now hit the much-vaunted 4-million unit mark "maybe in 2014, maybe by 2017," he said. "We might have expected two million or 2.25 million a year ago — so the pace of growth has been faster than expected."

Lada's Kalina, Priora and Samara models remain the most popular in the country. The brand sold 578,387 new cars in 2011 — up 11 percent from last year. The Avtovaz-Renault-Nissan alliance, which owns Lada, said earlier this week that global sales leapt 10 percent to a record 8.03 million.

The most popular foreign brand was General Motors' Chevrolet, which sold 173,484 new cars, up 49 percent from 116,223 last year.

Another big winner was Volkswagen, whose Kaluga production plant hit full capacity, with round-the-clock production for the first time this year. The group, which includes the Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi brands, saw sales jump 74 percent. Volkswagen sales alone doubled, from 58,989 to 118,003 last year.

Marcus Osegowitsch, general director of the Volkswagen group in Russia, put it down to "having the right product" — specifically the Polo sedan, designed especially for the Russian and Indian markets, and the Tiguan SUV.

Most executives remain bullish on the Russian market, pointing to Russia's relatively low level of car ownership, high average age of cars currently on the road, and expansion of networks in the regions that continues to open up new opportunities away from saturated markets like Moscow and St Petersburg.

"The general outlook is perfect," says VW's Osegowitsch. "The question is what happens between here and there."

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... functional clothing becoming more popular with shoppers."

The research was carried out by engineers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Hubei University for Nationalities, and is published in the latest issue of the Applied Materials and Interfaces journal.

The study focuses on titanium dioxide - a chemical known, say the scientists, to be an "excellent catalyst in the degradation of organic pollutants".

The substance is already used in self-cleaning windows, odour-free socks and stay-clean kitchen and bathroom tiles. Initial efforts to extend its use to cotton fabrics proved limiting because the substance's self-cleaning properties could only be "excited" under ultraviolet lights, making it impractical for everyday use.

The team's breakthrough was to create a nanoparticle alcohol-based compound made up of titanium dioxide and nitrogen.

The mixture was added to triethylamine, an acid neutraliser commonly used in dyes. After being stirred for a 12 hours at room temperature, the liquid was heated at 100C (212F) for a further six hours.

The cotton fabrics were then immersed in the mixture before being squeezed dry, heated and immersed in hot clean water. Finally the coated materials were treated with silver iodide particles, which aid light-based reactions.

To test the effectiveness of their invention, the engineers marked the fabrics with an orange dye stain and exposed them to the sun. After two hours in the light, the team said 71% of the stain had been removed - a "dramatic" improvement over previously trialled techniques.

The process is also long-lasting. The experiment was repeated on the same cloth five times with no loss of activity - suggesting that the enhancement was stable. Washing and drying the material did not reduce its effectiveness.

Clothes industry experts say there should be huge interest in the process if it could be rolled-out on an industrial scale.

[Meantime, there's no truth in the rumour that Unilever chairman Michael Treschow and his opposite number at P&G, Bob McDonald, are jointly seeking to acquire a certain patent. Is there?]

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... in the world adspend league table. In 2011 Brazil hit number six in the global rankings, Russia came in at No. 11 and India 16th.

In a list of up-and-comers, acronymized as MIST, Mexico ranked No. 15; Indonesia, 17; South Korea, 12; and Turkey, 24. 

Says Zenith's head of forecasting, Jonathan Barnard: "Emerging markets are the main source of ad-expenditure growth. Over the next three years, half of all global growth in ad expenditure will come from just ten markets: the BRICs, the MISTs, South Africa and Argentina."

The twenty-five largest ad markets in 2011 include ten emerging economies:

• BRIC nations (see above)
• MIST (see above)
• South Africa (No. 14)
• Thailand (No. 22)
• Argentina (No. 26)

Among the 100 largest global advertisers, thirteen companies allocated more than 10% of 2010 measured-media spending to China, according to AdAge's Global Marketers report.

But don't jump to hasty conclusions, counsels Zenith: "The US remains the powerhouse of advertising, with spending more than three times that of No. 2 Japan.

Nonetheless, the USA's share of major-media global ad spending (TV, print, radio, cinema, outdoor and internet) fell from 44% in 1986 to 33% in 2011.

Analysing ZenithOptimedia's forecast data, AdAge DataCenter notes that spending in emerging markets is reaching a tipping point. Other key points highlighted by AdAge are ...

• Such outlays will make up 33.2% of worldwide major-media spending in 2014, marginally ahead of the US share at 32.0%.
   
• Emerging markets accounted for just 4% of worldwide major-media ad spending in 1986.
   
• Per capita spending in emerging markets remains a fraction of that in the United States.
   
• Advertisers spent $498 for every man, woman and child in the US in 2011. In China they spent $22 per capita - roughly equating to America's per capita ad expenditure in 1946.
   
• But consider how far China has come since 1986 when its per capita ad spending was just 9 cents!

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... given that world gross domestic product [GDP] is predicted to grow 3.2% in 2012, accelerating to 3.5% between 2013-2016. Beyond which period, growth is projected to average a meagre 2.7% from 2017-2025. Each period’s projected pace is less than the 3.6% average during the 1996-2005 period that preceded today's ongoing recession.

• Over time, the emergence of larger middle classes in the developing markets will help global businesses to adjust to declining demand among struggling middle-class consumers in the advanced nations.
   
• Much of the medium-term acceleration will come from the advanced economies, including the US, the Eurozone and Japan. The board projects those developed nations’ growth will pick up from 1.3% in 2012, to 2.0% in the following four years, then ease to 1.9% from 2017 to 2025.
   
• Emerging nations, led by China and India, are set to slow, with total GDP seen rising 5.1% in 2012, 4.9% from 2013-2016 and 3.4% after that.

When the board’s economists ran the global forecast, the biggest surprise was the throttling back in China’s growth rate, said Bart van Ark, the board’s chief economist.
China is expected to expand 8.7% next year, 6.6% in the following four years and only 3.5% in the 2017-2025 period.

Of course, the 3.5% rate will be based on a much larger GDP level. The board expects China to overtake the US as the globe's largest economy by about 2015 on a purchasing-power-parity basis.

“China must transform itself from an export-driven economy to one more geared toward domestic, consumer-based demand,” said van Ark. That shift, along with slower population growth, will account for most of China’s deceleration.

The global output slowdown will result in smaller gains in per-capita income that bring risks to both the advanced and developing worlds, the report warned.

For the advanced economies, believes van Ark, “slower income growth will leave less money available to finance health-care and pension programs."

The US and the Eurozone have already had to confront unsustainable trends in fiscal entitlements programs. Slower income growth would leave even smaller revenue sources.

For emerging markets, per-capita income growth will likely be unevenly distributed, with some nations seeing per-capita income growth of only 1%, a rate too low to improve living standards.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... a faster rate of slowdown than in last month’s assessment. The CLIs for the United States, Germany and Russia, however, remain above 100, indicating that current world economic activity remains above its long-term trend.

For all other major economies, except Japan, the CLIs are now below 100 pointing strongly to a slowdown in economic activity below long term trend.

The CLI for Japan continues to indicate a potential turning-point in economic activity, but there are no strong signs of a slowdown.

The OECD Development Centre's Asian Business Cycle Indicators show signs of moderation in ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] economies, comprising Brunei, Burma (Myanmar),  Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

The full ORECD report can be accessed here.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.