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Economic growth is expected to slow down somewhat in 2019 and 2020, mainly due to lower export growth and the cooling down of the Chinese economic cycle.

Due to its high dependency on international trade, Singapore is highly susceptible to global protectionism and a hard landing of the Chinese economy.

Major infrastructure investment is necessary in order to increase private investments and to safeguard high economic growth rates in the long term.

Due to its high dependency on international trade, South Korea is highly susceptible to global protectionism and a hard landing of the Chinese economy.

Taiwan´s economic expansion is likely to moderate in 2019 and in 2020, as both global trade growth and mainland China´s import demand have cooled down.

As many building materials are imported from the EU tariffs or limits on quantities imported after Brexit could lead to higher costs and material shortage.

The construction materials subsector clearly benefits from increased building material prices, and elevated costs are expected to persist throughout 2019.

The payment duration in the industry has increased to 70 days on average, and the payment experience over the past two years has been rather bad.

Many smaller construction companies have weak equity ratios and limited financial scope, which makes them vulnerable to payment delays and defaults.

Competition in the Swedish construction sector is high and consolidation is ongoing, with financially stronger groups buying financially weaker peers.

The insolvency level is high compared to other industries, and after increasing in 2018 business failures are expected rise further in H1 of 2019.

Payment behaviour in the construction industry slowly deteriorated in 2017 and 2018, and this negative trend is expected to continue in the coming months.

The overall indebtedness of many Belgian construction businesses is still high, while banks remain rather unwilling to provide credit to the industry.

Besides the low spending capacity, ongoing tight lending conditions set by banks remain one of the main reasons for the subdued sector performance.

Payments in the Australian construction sector take 30-60 days on average, and the level of protracted payments and insolvencies was high in 2018.

Late payments by mainly larger companies continue to negatively affect the working capital management of many smaller businesses in all segments.

Mid-sized businesses are facing profitability issues due to higher labour costs triggered by shortage of qualified staff and increased commodity prices.

Despite increasing clouds on the horizon, there remain several bright spots for export opportunities in emerging markets.

The economic impact of USMCA on Mexican-US trade is likely to be limited, as it is effectively a small modification of the pre-existing NAFTA agreement.

Trade policy uncertainty is one of the top risks to US businesses and consumers in 2019 that may bring the next downturn on more quickly than expected.