UAE Business Activity Growth Flat In August

Business activity growth in the United Arab Emirates’ non-oil private sector remained flat in August while output rose to a six-month high, a purchasing managers’ survey showed on Tuesday.

The HSBC UAE Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures the performance of the manufacturing and services sectors, stayed at 54.5 points last month, unchanged from July.

The adjusted index remains above the 50-point mark which separates growth from contraction, the survey of 400 private sector firms showed.

“This is another very good reading, supporting our view of a broad-based pick-up in growth throughout the UAE,” said Liz Martins, senior economist for global banking and markets at HSBC.

“Even allowing for the seasonal adjustment, the increase in output and employment is all the more impressive for taking place in the typically quiet month of August,” she said.

UAE companies saw output growth accelerate to 56.6 points in August, the highest level since February, from 54.6 in the previous month. New orders were at 60.3 points, down from 61.0 in July.

Growth in new export orders dropped to 53.0 points last month from 56.8 points in July, the survey also showed.

Employment growth across the UAE’s non-oil private sector edged down to 51.5 points in August, the lowest level since March 2012, from 51.6 in the previous month.

Output prices eased to 50.3 points from July’s 50.5 points. Input price growth picked up to 53.6 points in August from 52.5 in the previous month.

Consumer price inflation in the UAE, the world’s No. 3 oil exporter, held steady at a two-year high of 1.3 percent on an annual basis in July, government data showed last month.