Activity by Egypt’s non-oil private companies receded for a fifth month in a row in February, according to the National Bank of Dubai’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) released Thursday.
The report said the crunch was attributed to weak demand. The index was up to 48.1 points from 48.0 in January, but below the 50-point growth benchmark.
Commenting on the Emirates NBD Egypt PMITM, Senior Economist at Emirates NBD Jean-Paul Pigat 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.”
