Here are 3 deterrents to RMG's medical tourism growth

For starters, it is still seeing a drop in medical tourism.

For the analysts at CIMB, it is too premature to start turning positive on Raffles Medical Group, seeing that the 1.3% full-year growth is not something to spark a turnaround.

According to CIMB, the group's 4Q16 top line growth was weak amidst slowing demand. In the said quarter, Raffles incurred a 1% QoQ sales decline.

Quoting the group, CIMB said that this is attributed to the weakness to medical tourism.

"The miss in medical tourism mostly came from Indonesian patients. Indo patients now form less than 20% of RFMD’s total foreign patients (prev. 20+%). Even as management cited growth from other markets including Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar and China, the tone was that medical tourism growth will likely be subdued," CIMB said.

CIMB stated three deterrents to Raffles' medical tourism growth including a strong dollar, the rising private healthcare costs, and the strong competition from regional peers.

"Weak medical tourism, limited domestic growth and expansion costs are hitting the group’s hospital segment. The hospital saw its first ever PBT decline in FY16 at 3% YoY," CIMB noted.