Global volume was dragged down by the 2.4 per cent drop in the Chinese market, Euromonitor said. The research showed that the Asia Pacific region as a whole recorded a volume decline of 2.7 per cent.
In Russia, volumes fell by 6 per cent. “We now expect [the Russian market] to be a full 100 billion sticks smaller in 2020 than it was in 2001,” Shane MacGuill, head of tobacco research at Euromonitor said.
Western Europe, however, saw cigarette volumes increase for the first time in several years. According to MacGuill, the market grew by just under 1 per cent “as economies there recovered and outswitching to illicit, OTP and vapour products lessened.”