Cairo – Mubasher: The downturn in Egypt’s non-oil sector was sustained in February, with business conditions worsening for the fifth month in a row, a survey showed on Thursday.
The Emirates NBD Egypt Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the non-oil private sector slipped to 48.1 points in February from 48.0 points in January, remaining below the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction.
Some of the underlying data showed signs of stabilisation, however, as rates of contraction in output, new orders and new export work all eased. As a result, input buying dropped only slightly. That said, all of these variables remained on a downward path overall, while employment and pre-production inventories fell at faster rates. Charges were raised for the first time in six months in line with higher input costs, which were linked in turn to currency weakness versus the US dollar, according to the report.
The survey, sponsored by Emirates NBD and produced by Markit, contains original data collected from a monthly survey of business conditions in the Egyptian private sector.
Commenting on the Emirates NBD Egypt PMI, Jean-Paul Pigat, Senior Economist at Emirates NBD, said: “The PMI continues to reflect relatively subdued domestic demand conditions at the start of 2016, and is consistent with other official data we have on the real economy. Some encouragement can be taken from the New Export Orders component, which despite remaining below the neutral 50-level, is nevertheless showing a slower pace of decline than in previous months.”
