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Scientific Technology News

IMF Projects Converging Growth in July’s World Economic Outlook Update

In its July 2024 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update: The Global Economy in a Sticky Spot, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stuck with its global growth estimates as forecast in April’s WEO: Steady but Slow: Resilience Amid Divergence, with GDP predicted to gain 3.2% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025. Activity varied across economies at the beginning of 2024, with many countries experiencing higher growth than had been expected, owing in part to increased world trade, attributable to strong technology exports from Asia. Domestic consumption ramped up in China, and the services sector improved in Europe. In contrast, curbed consumption and negative net trade slowed US growth, which had been outperforming expectations. In Japan, a New Year’s Day earthquake caused a short period of supply disruption and the shutdown of automobile production. 

Industry Growth: Q1 2024

For Q1 2024, the Lab Analytical and Life Science markets continued to contract due to softness in CapEx, adjusting for heightened demand over the past few years. Conversely, the Process Analytical market experienced high single-digit growth in the first quarter.

PAI 2024: The Process Analytical Instrument Market Report

PAI/2024 is the latest edition of the PAI report series, providing worldwide product forecasts for 2022-2028 (by year). The product forecasts are shown by major end-user market segment and by geographic region. The report identifies the leading suppliers in each of the technology categories including liquid analyzers, photometers/spectroscopy, oxygen, gas chromatography, mass spectrometers, moisture analyzers, advanced analyzers and other continuous process analyzers. In 2023, the process analytical instruments (PAI) market accounted for $5.9 billion and is experiencing robust growth, fueled by new hydrocarbon processing projects, particularly in Asia-Pacific. Sustainability, carbon capture and alternative fuels continue to be industry drivers for analyzer companies.

US Federal R&D Funding Cut 3% for 2024

Nearly seven months after the start of the US fiscal year (FY) 2024, the US federal government finally has a budget, with the second set of twelve appropriations bills signed into law by President Biden on March 23. These annual bills, which fund the government through September 30, 2024, provide $194.3 for research and development (R&D) funding, a cut of about $5 billion (2.7%) compared to last year, when a substantial increase of 10% had been appropriated. These cuts occurred following spending limits imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

Q4 2023 and Full Year 2023 Market Report: Managing Through Challenging Times

Facing a challenging macroeconomic environment, most leading international publicly held life science and analytical instrument companies reported sales declines in the mid-single digits for the fourth quarter of 2023 and drops in the low single-digits for the full year—all against tough comparisons of strong growth from the previous year. In short, 2023 was a year when the pandemic tailwinds became headwinds. 

2024 TDA Instrument Industry Outlook Report Now Available

Each successive year since the coronavirus pandemic, it seems we wonder if this will be the year in which conditions return to some approximation of normal following the economic turmoil COVID-19 caused. Although each year so far, the answer has been no, it appears that each year has been marked by incremental shifts toward equilibrium. In 2023, supply chains, shipping costs, and, delivery times largely returned to their prepandemic statuses, and a global recession seems to have been averted. However, high inflation, while falling, continues to contribute to weakened consumer sentiment, and fiscal policy in some economies still reflects the detrimental effects of the pandemic.  

TDA’s 2023 Outlook Mid-Year Update Available

The major factors shaping economic conditions for 2023 are similar to those in the year prior with recovery—from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—on the distant horizon. Persistent inflation continues to reduce growth in the analytical instruments industry as customers have less cash available to spend.

IMF Cites Slight Improvement in July’s World Economic Outlook Update

Despite the May declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency and the resolution of many supply chain and shipping problems, global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has slowed, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its July 2023 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update: Near-Term Resilience, Persistent Challenges. The increases in central bank policy rates enacted to combat inflation have hindered economic activity, resulting in weak global growth.

Market Profile: PFAS Testing

Known as “forever chemicals,” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are some of the most pervasive pollutants in the environment. A class of synthetic organic chemicals first introduced into products in the 1940s and used widely for their exceptional repelling properties, they are linked by a hard-to-break carbon-fluorine bond. In the intervening decades, PFAS have seeped into waterways, soil, and people’s and animals’ bodies.