Dubai’s private sector posts strong growth in February

Dubai’s private sector posts strong growth in February

Dubai: Business activity in Dubai continued to expand sharply in February according to the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). Dubai’s PMI in February climbed to 54.1 after easing to a four- month low of 52.6 in January, to signal a strong improvement in operating conditions in the non-oil economy. The 1.5-point rise was largely driven by the New Orders Index, with only small fluctuations seen in the other four components of the PMI. Non-oil companies saw a sharper increase in new orders midway through the opening quarter, which was widely attributed to an upturn in client demand and a recovery in economic conditions following a brief period of disruption from the Omicron wave. In fact, the rate of new order growth was one of the strongest seen since the start of the pandemic, beaten only by those seen towards the end of last year. “New business growth in Dubai returned to the strong levels seen at the end of last year in February, in a promising sign that the Omicron variant has had only a minor impact on the economy compared to previous waves of the pandemic,” said David Owen, Economist at IHS Markit. An upturn in overall sales was