DUBAI: Business activity growth in the United Arab Emirates’ non-oil private sector fell to a four-month low in September as gains in new orders slowed despite increasing output, a survey showed yesterday.
The HSBC UAE Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures the performance of the manufacturing and services sectors, dropped to 57.6 points in September from a record high of 58.4 points in August.
The adjusted index remains well above the 50-point mark which separates growth from contraction, the survey of 400 private sector firms showed.
“Numbers continue to indicate we are in a good stage in the economic cycle. Output continues to grow while price pressures remain under control,” said Razan Nasser, senior economist for the Middle East and North Africa at HSBC.
UAE firms saw output growth accelerate to a three-month high of 63.2 points in September from 62.2 points in August. However, new orders growth dropped to 64.0 points, the lowest rate since August 2013, from 66.4 points the previous month.
Growth in new export orders also slowed to a four-month low of 60.9 points from 64.0 points, which was the highest level since the series began in August 2009, the survey showed.
Employment creation across the UAE’s non-oil private sector slipped to 52.6 points, the weakest growth since January.
Output price growth slipped into negative territory again after one month in positive territory. The rate of input price inflation eased to a four-month low of 54.4 points.
Meanwhile, business activity in Egypt expanded at a near-record pace in September, a survey showed, with a nascent economic recovery encouraging companies to hire for the first time in nearly 2-1/2 years.
Egypt’s economy has been hit by more than three years of political and economic turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power.
The government is trying to strike a balance between cutting its deficit whilst reviving economic growth, which fell to 2.1 percent in the 2012-13 fiscal year and remains far slower than the pace needed to create enough jobs for a youthful population of 86 million.
Increased output and a sharp rise in new orders last month, however, appeared to suggest that confidence was beginning to return. At the same time, inflationary pressures stoked by a major reduction in government subsidies to the energy sector in July eased, with input and output prices rising more slowly.
The HSBC Egypt Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the non-oil private sector stood at 52.4 points in September, just a tick below the all-time high of 52.5 points hit last November.
Readings above 50 indicate expansion while those below 50 point to contraction.
Reuters
