Management Report
2. Economic Outlook
We expect a further slowing of global economic growth toward the end of the year. There are increasing signs that the economy is weakening, particularly in Europe and the United States. We foresee robust, though somewhat slower, rates of growth in the emerging markets.
We continue to expect that the pharmaceutical market will grow by a mid-single-digit percentage in 2011, mainly driven by the emerging economies. We anticipate weaker growth in the United States and the major European countries.
We continue to foresee solid growth in 2011 for the consumer care market. The diabetes care market will probably grow somewhat more than initially expected due to the more favorable development of the U.S. market. We expect the positive trend in the animal health market to continue.
We expect the positive development of the global seed and crop protection market to continue for the remainder of 2011. Prices for agricultural raw materials, which remain at a comparatively high level, have accelerated market growth, especially in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
We expect to see generally lower growth rates in the major customer industries of MaterialScience in the coming months than in the year to date due to the weaker trend in the global economy.