Egypt’s PMI improves in August

Egypt’s non-oil economy registered a softer decline in operating conditions in August, with the S&P Global Egypt Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) improving to 47.6 from July’s 46.4, its highest reading since February.

This was due to easing inflationary pressures helped to alleviate spending constraints at clients and lead to slower decreases in output and new orders, a survey further showed on Monday.

S&P Global economist David Owen said in the survey: “August saw the key PMI metrics move in the right direction with the headline index up for the second month running, while price gauges continued to fall from their recent peaks.”

“The latest rise in input costs was much softer than in July, supporting a slower uplift in output prices that should ease the burden on consumers over the coming months.”

The rise in the headline index was mainly driven by the Output and New Orders indices, which both ticked higher for the second consecutive month from June’s recent lows, the survey read.

Staff numbers at non-oil businesses increased at the strongest rate since October 2019, as firms began to offset job cuts made in the first half of the year. “With staffing capacity up, businesses were able to stabilise their work-inhand following two successive increases in backlogs.”

“On the price front, August survey data signalled a broad softening of input cost pressures in Egypt, with inflation easing sharply for the second month running.”