For April, UAE businesses record sharpest growth in new orders since November 2021
Demand too received a boost as selling prices dipped significantly
Dubai: UAE's private sector had another round of accelerated growth in April, with new business orders recording their best tally since November 2021, according to the latest PMI data from S&P Global.
In another big positive, demand was helped by selling prices dropping at the fastest rate since September 2020. And as expected, given the rise in new orders, companies kept hiring.
"While the rate of job creation was slower than March's near seven-year record, it was still stronger than the survey trend," said David Owen, Senior Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. "Rising demand and rapid capacity improvements helped to drive confidence towards future activity higher for the fourth successive month and to its strongest level since September 2022."
A lowering of inflation pressures was felt across categories, helmed by the dip in fuel costs. This had a trickle effect on consumer prices and those charged on businesses.
For April, the PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) improved from March's 55.9 to 56.6 in last month, signalling a 'robust improvement in the performance of the (UAE) non-oil economy', says S&P Global. The index is just short of its post-pandemic peak of 56.7 in August 2022.
What will please UAE business owners no end is that this is brought on by new orders rather than from controlling costs or related measures.
In fact, "The relatively mild uptick in business expenses encouraged a number of companies to offer price promotions, which helped to drive an upturn in sales that was the sharpest recorded since late-2021," said Owen. "Efforts to improve services and boost marketing also underlined growth."