Trade has been a key driver in the growth in prosperity over the last few decades. By opening markets up to new suppliers and forcing firms to innovate in order to remain competitive, it leads to improvements in the quality, cost and range of goods and services on offer.
But the nature and context for trade has changed. Spurred on by technological innovation, modern supply chains are international and highly fragmented, and services can be more readily traded. Not everyone has benefited from the shift in traditional trade patterns. The rationale for free trade, and free trade itself, is being challenged.
Navigating this complexity is challenging but we have a long track record of analysing how sectors perform and interact. We analyse trade, competitiveness and sector performance and make sense of the complexity to allow you to make, or influence, better decisions.
Some challenging questions we can help you answer:
- Which sectors are most at risk from a change in the trading relationship between two regions. How would this affect a given sector and the wider economy in each?
- Was financial support for R&D activities in firms successful in boosting innovation and firm performance?
- How does the structure of a sector explain its performance and what is the outlook for its future prospects? How does this compare to the same sector in other countries?
