Asia Pacific

The report examines the economic landscape of Laos and provides information on major monetary indicators, foreign trade, investments and government finance. The economy in Laos expanded in real terms in 2022, driven by increasing public and private…

The emergence of the pandemic in Japan brought both positives and negatives for wipes. The positive impact was felt by general purpose wipes and baby wipes in 2020, when the former recorded dynamic 35% retail volume growth due to heightened hygiene…

2022 was the beginning of the recovery from the impact of the pandemic in Japan. While 2020 and 2021 experienced long periods of soft lockdowns – a state of emergency and quasi-state of emergency – these harsh restrictions ended in April in 2022…

Sanitary protection in Japan experienced another year of marginal retail volume decline in 2022, while the average unit price increased to its highest level of the review period, and indeed the previous decade. This resulted in positive current value…

Facial tissues, comprising boxed facial tissues and pocket handkerchiefs, witnessed a significant drop in demand in 2020, due to home seclusion as a result of the pandemic. Usage of facial tissues was therefore limited, as the population was less…

Japan continued to move towards an ageing population at the end of the review period. While the total population of the nation peaked in 2008, citizens aged 65+ years are expected to continue growing until at least 2040, according to Euromonitor…

The number of new births in Japan was expected to sit below 800,000 in 2022, which will be 5% lower than 2021’s levels. Since the breakout of the pandemic in 2020, the decline in Japan’s birth rate has accelerated. COVID-19 may have made the future…

Japan is considered an ageing society. Indeed, while the total population of the nation peaked in 2008, the population aged 65+ years is expected to continue growing until at least 2040, according to Consumers data by Euromonitor International. The…

Despite the fallout from the war in Ukraine, which led to high inflation, stemming from high energy prices, wipes performed well, with healthy constant value and volume growth. This was backed up by strong fundamentals in an economy that has huge…

General purpose wipes continued to record rapid growth, after moist toilet wipes due to greater concerns over personal hygiene since the pandemic. Consumers have also become accustomed to using products with alcohol ingredients from pre-pandemic…

Overall, vending retail current value sales started to recover during 2021, albeit at a moderate pace. Appliances and electronics continued to see a drop in retail current value sales, albeit much slower than in 2020. More positively, soft drinks…

Despite the fallout from the war in Ukraine, which led to high inflation, stemming from high energy prices, tissue and hygiene performed well, with healthy constant value growth and moderate volume growth. This was backed up by strong fundamentals in…

Tissue and hygiene registered healthier value growth in 2022 compared to the previous year. The main underlying reasons can be attributed to a further loosening up of pandemic prevention policies in Taiwan especially after Q2 2022, rising raw…

As seen in hypermarkets, supermarkets continues to show positive growth in 2022 – for the same reasons, and also because supermarkets is showing strong competition to hypermarkets. In 2022, the Vietnamese government removed all restrictions and…

Retail current value sales of supermarkets rebounded in 2022, following two years of strong decline in the wake of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, retail current value sales remained lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic level. Nonetheless,…

Following a two-year period of decline, supermarkets saw a welcome increase in current value sales in 2022. Growth was boosted by the loosening of COVID-19-related restrictions, which had a significant impact on consumer footfall, particularly in the…

Small local grocers (traditional grocers) is one retailing channel which suffered during the era of COVID-19, thus the lifting of pandemic restrictions in 2022 heralded good news for these stores and the start of recovery. Indeed, in 2021, Vietnam…

Small local grocers showed some resilience in the face of the effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Many consumers looked to purchase products in grocery stores near to their homes and avoid travelling to distant shopping centres because of…

Small local grocers enjoyed an improved performance in both current value sales terms in 2022, thanks to the continued recovery of domestic economy. This helped to boost consumer confidence, which had been eroded by the COVID-19 crisis. This was in…

Despite the fallout from the war in Ukraine, which led to high inflation, stemming from high energy prices, sanitary protection performed well, with healthy constant value growth and moderate volume growth. This was backed up by strong fundamentals…