Riyadh – Mubasher: The headline seasonally adjusted Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), maintained its reading at 48.1 for May, a recent report by IHS Markit showed.
The index, which measures the operating conditions in the non-oil private sector economy, remained below the 50-point mark, reflecting contraction.
The overall decline in output volumes was slower than the survey-record seen in April, the report explained, adding that businesses continued to report a severe impact on customer demand from the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The speed of the continuous downturn moderated from the previous month’s survey-record pace.
“Some firms noted that an easing of lockdown measures had helped mitigate the downturn in May, alongside efforts to boost online business operations. However, there were still widespread reports that business closures and constrained operating capacity had held back overall activity across the non-oil private sector,” Tim Moore, Economics Director at IHS Markit, explained.
“May data indicated that businesses have increasingly sought to agree salary cuts in the face of sharply reduced workloads, with the latest drop in average staff costs the fastest since the survey began in August 2009,” Moore added.
In April, The IHS Markit Saudi Arabia PMI registered 44.4
