Dubai: UAE businesses keep winning more orders even as they tried to keep end-user prices in strict check, according to the latest UAE PMI numbers from S&P Global. The decline in fuel prices of latest is also lending a hand in this process.
"Low price pressures are also helping to drive growth, with September data pointing to another month where inflation had rapidly come off the boil since the first-half of the year,” said David Owen, Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. “Despite input costs rising (after dropping in August), they did only slightly, as downward movements for a swathe of commodity prices helped to ease the burden on firms' procurement budgets.
“Subsequently, input purchasing increased at the fastest rate for over three years, helping to boost inventories and supporting both higher new orders and stronger output expectations for the next 12 months."
In more positives, there was improved demand and faster payments to suppliers leading to a 'further improvement in delivery times'. Some of the feedback from UAE businesses also suggested that 'vendors had been able to expand their capacity in line with higher input requirements. In turn, stocks of purchased items rose solidly and at the quickest pace since August 2020'.
September PMI
Even with the heightened activity, the PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) reading for September dropped slightly, to 56.1 from 56.7 in August. This is the first time in three months the PMI – which gives a broad indication of business activity – has dropped.
"At a time of heightened global recession risks, these findings suggest that domestic businesses are keeping well clear of economic storms in other regions, helped by above-trend rates of growth in output and new business as the country continues to recover from the pandemic," said Owen.
