Egypt PMI: non-oil economic headwinds show promise of dissipating

Egypt PMI: non-oil economic headwinds show promise of dissipating

Egypt’s non-oil economic headwinds are showing further promise of dissipating as companies said their input costs were softening, and stabilisation of the Egyptian pound cooled import markets.

The country’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report for May said the country saw the slowest downturn in business conditions in 15 months.

The headline index was 47.8, its highest level since February 2022, still below the 50.0 threshold signalling overall growth, but an increase from April’s 47.3, the report said.

The country is making progress towards a stabler demand environment, which led to a slower, but still solid contraction in activity levels.

While higher prices continued to dent sales, output and purchasing, firms signalled that inflationary pressures were much softer than the highs seen at the turn of the year, according to the report by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

However, ongoing challenges for non-oil companies meant that the activity outlook remained subdued and employment levels were cut again.

Receipts of new orders at non-oil businesses declined to a lesser extent in May, with this index picking up to its highest for seven months.

Companies continued to report subdued demand largely attributed to inflation, but some respondents began to see a recovery in client orders.

New business intakes in the services economy