Global information technology (IT) spending will increase by 8% to $5.06 trillion in 2024, according to research firm Gartner.
The previous forecast, released in January, called for an increase of 6.8% (to about $5 trillion).
At the end of 2023, IT costs rose by 3.8% to $4.7 trillion.
Gartner analysts note that global spending in this area may surpass the $8 trillion mark well before the end of this decade.
Growth in data center spending is expected to accelerate to 10% this year, mainly due to plans to develop generative artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, IT services will be the largest market at nearly $1.52 trillion, the report said.
The average lifespan of cell phones is shrinking and consumers and organizations are buying new devices faster, which will push this market segment to grow in 2024 after it fell by 9% last year, experts believe.
Pharmacy sales in Ukraine in January-March 2024 increased by 14.8% in monetary terms compared to the same period a year earlier to UAH 48.532 billion, while in physical terms they decreased by 3% to 300.373 million packs.
Business Credit told Interfax-Ukraine that according to its research, the weighted average price of pharmacy basket items during this period was UAH 161.57, up 18.39% compared to the first quarter of 2023.
In addition, according to Business Credit, pharmacies sold over UAH 37.944 billion worth of medicines, which is 13.6% more than in the same period in 2023. At the same time, their sales in physical terms decreased by 3.75% to 212.103 million packs.
The weighted average retail price of medicinal products in January-March 2024 amounted to UAH 178.9 per unit, which is 18% higher than a year earlier.
At the same time, in monetary terms, pharmacy sales of disinfectants showed the greatest dynamics in January-March 2024 (an increase of 49.57%), Business Credit said.
The top three leaders in sales dynamics also included dietary supplements, whose sales increased by 26.35% in monetary terms to UAH 5.317 billion and by 2.94% in physical terms to more than 27.136 million packages. The average unit price in this segment amounted to UAH 195.96 per unit, up 22.7% year-on-year.
In addition, medical cosmetics were in the top three. Pharmacy sales in this segment in monetary terms amounted to UAH 1.225 billion, up 26.13% year-on-year, and almost 6.897 million packs were sold (+13.8% in physical terms). The weighted average price in this segment was UAH 177.62 per pack (up 10.8%).
As reported, in 2023, pharmacy sales in Ukraine increased by almost 21.67% in monetary terms compared to 2022, to UAH 174.249 billion, while in physical terms they decreased by 4.76%, to 1.218 billion packs. The weighted average price of pharmacy sales last year amounted to UAH 142.96 per unit, which is 27.75% more than in 2022.
At the same time, sales of medicinal products in pharmacies increased by 19.69% in monetary terms to UAH 136.246 billion, while sales in physical terms decreased by 3% to 858.55 million packs. Their weighted average price increased by 23.5% to UAH 158.69 per unit.
China on Friday launched an automated spacecraft on a nearly two-month mission to collect rocks and soil from the moon’s back side, becoming the first country to undertake such an ambitious endeavor, Reuters reported. China’s largest rocket, Long March-5, launched at 17:27 Beijing time (12:27 Kiev time) from the Wenchang spaceport on the southern island of Hainan with the Chang’e-6 probe weighing more than 8 tons.
Chang’e-6’s mission is to land in the South Pole-Eitken basin on the back side of the moon, which is eternally facing away from Earth, after which it will retrieve and return samples.
The launch was another milestone in China’s lunar and space exploration program.
“It remains a mystery to us how China was able to develop such an ambitious and successful program in such a short time,” said Pierre-Yves Meslain, a French researcher working on one of the Chang’e-6 mission’s scientific objectives.
In 2018, Chang’e-4 made the first unmanned landing on the back side of the moon. In 2020, Chang’e-5 delivered lunar samples for the first time in 44 years, and Chang’e-6 could make China the first country to get samples from the “hidden” side of the moon.
Earlier, the launch of the Quequiao-2 transponder satellite, designed to link China’s lunar landers with ground stations, was reported.
The CRH Group, the largest manufacturer of building materials in North America and Europe, has invested $80 million in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion.
According to Guillaume Cavalier, President of CRH in Central and Eastern Europe, in an interview with Forbes Ukraine, the group’s total investments in Ukraine over 25 years of operation amount to more than $500 million.
According to him, it is important to use locally produced cement in the context of infrastructure reconstruction in Ukraine, which will provide jobs and higher revenues to the state budget.
Cavalier emphasized that for the potential growth of the Ukrainian cement market after joining the EU, it is important to invest in the expansion of production now. He reminded that the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) is currently considering CRH’s application to acquire the assets of Italian Buzzi in Ukraine – Volyn-Cement (Zdolbuniv, Rivne region) and Yugcement (Olshanske, Mykolaiv region).
As reported, on January 23, the AMCU announced the commencement of consideration of the case on concerted actions in the form of implementation of non-competition provisions enshrined in the concentration agreement between the Irish CRH group and Dyckerhoff GmbH, which own assets in Ukraine.
In June 2023, the Italian cement producer Buzzi, listed by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption as an international war sponsor, through its subsidiary Dyckerhoff GmbH, reached an agreement to sell part of its Eastern European business to the Irish CRH Group, including its Ukrainian assets in the form of two cement plants. The deal is expected to close in 2024.
Later, in September 2023, the AMC returned CRH’s merger filing without consideration due to non-compliance with the requirements, and noted that the group holds about a third of the Ukrainian cement market. In October of the same year, the agency resumed consideration of the case.
CRH has been operating in Ukraine since 1999. Since November 2021, its cement enterprises in Ukraine have been operating under the Cemark brand: Podilskyi Cement JSC (Khmelnytskyi region), Cement LLC (Odesa), and Mykolaivcement PrJSC (Lviv region).
CRH’s separate business in Ukraine is the production of concrete and reinforced concrete products. PoliBeton Energo’s Bila Tserkva concrete goods plant is a specialized enterprise that produces power transmission towers. PoliBeton’s concrete hub in the north of Odesa joined CRH in 2020.
CRH is the world’s leading manufacturer of building materials. The company employs around 71,000 people at its 3,200 sites in 28 countries. It is the largest manufacturer of building materials in North America and Europe. The company is also represented in Asia. CRH American depositary shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The National Bank of Ukraine has estimated Ukraine’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of 2024 by the same period last year at 3.1%, while in January it forecast it at 7.1%.
“Real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024, according to NBU estimates, was weaker than expected, primarily due to restrained budget expenditures amid uncertainty about the receipt of external financing. An additional factor was the blockade of the western border, which restrained the activity of certain types of activities,” the National Bank explained in the Inflation Report published on its website.
At the same time, as the NBU pointed out, stable operation of the sea corridor, favorable weather and increased domestic demand supported economic growth. The central bank added that fiscal policy remained accommodative and, together with the effect of a significant increase in fiscal spending at the end of 2023, significantly fueled aggregate demand.
Earlier, in late April, the Economy Ministry estimated Ukraine’s GDP growth at 4.5% in the first quarter of this year.
As the National Bank notes, moderate GDP growth rates will remain until the end of 2024. “The main factors of growth will remain the preservation of soft fiscal policy, revitalization of external demand, as well as further adjustment of business and population to the conditions of significant security threats. However, the pace of economic growth will slow given the impact of the war and the depletion of growth momentum from the low base of 2022,” the NBI pointed out.
It added that the recovery will also be constrained by the impact of the destruction of energy infrastructure.
According to the updated forecasts, GDP growth will accelerate to 3.7% in the second quarter (the NBU expected it at 4.8% in January) before slowing to 1.3% (1.7%) in the third quarter and accelerating again to 4.1% (2.0%) in the fourth quarter.
Overall, for 2024, the NBU worsened its growth forecast for the Ukrainian economy to 3% from 3.6% in its January report, and for 2025 to 5.3% from 5.8%.
“The negative contribution of revised estimates of the e/e deficit to the change in real GDP in 2024 is estimated at 0.6 percentage points (pp), and 0.5 pp in 2025. Instead, the impact on GDP of a smaller grain harvest in 2024 will be insignificant due to the reorientation of agricultural producers to more marginal crops, particularly oilseeds,” the central bank said.
According to the regulator, the balance of risks of the baseline forecast is shifted towards deterioration of Ukraine’s economic growth rates and increased price pressure.
The National Bank in the updated Inflation Report increased the number of key risks of the forecast (with a strong impact and probability of 25-50%) to three: to the risk of a longer period and intensity of the war added the risk of large budgetary needs (a quarter earlier the NBU estimated its probability at 15-25%) and large damage to energy and port infrastructure (a quarter earlier the impact of this risk the central bank considered moderate).
At the same time, the probability of the risk of reduction of volumes and loss of rhythm of international aid receipts and continuation of partial blocking of cargo traffic across the border by some EU countries was reduced from 25-50% to 15-25%, but the degree of impact of the latter risk was increased from weak to moderate.
In addition, the NBU added a new risk – aggravation of the situation in the Red Sea, but estimated its probability at 15-25% and the degree of influence as low, as well as excluded the risk of increasing the capacity of maritime export routes, which is positive for the forecast.
Earlier Experts Club analytical center and Maxim Urakin released a video analysis of how the GDP of the world’s countries has changed in recent years, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=BsZmIUERHSBJrO_3 Subscribe to Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub.
EXPERTS CLUB, GDP, MACROECONOMICS, NATIONAL BANK, UKRAINE, URAKIN
Law enforcement officers detained the head of the State Enterprise “Administration of River Ports” on suspicion of receiving an undue benefit of $8.5 thousand for permission to place recreation facilities on berths in Kyiv region, the press service of the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure reports.
“According to law enforcement agencies, yesterday the head of the State Enterprise “Administration of River Ports” was detained for receiving an undue benefit of $8.5 thousand for concluding a contract for the operation of hydraulic structures (berths) in the Kyiv region for the organization of recreation facilities and placement of small architectural forms,” the ministry said in a Facebook post on Friday.
It is noted that he is suspected under Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The issue of choosing a preventive measure is being decided.
“The Ministry emphasizes zero tolerance for corruption of officials, is interested in an objective investigation and assists law enforcement agencies in establishing the truth in every possible way,” the statement said.
The report does not specify the name of the detainee. The River Ports Authority has been headed by Oleksandr Kozlovsky since July 10, 2020.
