RIYADH: The rate of output growth in Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private sector remained strong last month, a survey of businesses showed on Tuesday.
The Saudi British Bank SABB has published the results of the headline SABB HSBC Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for April 2015 – a monthly report issued by the bank and HSBC.
It reflects the economic performance of Saudi Arabian nonoil producing private sector companies through monitoring a number of variables, including output, orders, prices, stocks and employment.
Adjusted for seasonal factors, the headline PMI posted at 58.3 in April, thereby signalling a further robust improvement in business conditions at Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private sector firms. That said, the latest reading was down from March’s six-month high of 60.1 and slightly weaker than the long-run trend.
According to underlying data, the overall expansion was supported by marked growth of output and new orders in the latest period.
Despite easing from the previous month, the rate of output growth in Saudi Arabia’s nonoil private sector remained strong in April, amid reports of solid demand conditions and new project opportunities.
Furthermore, April data continued to show new orders rising in line with output, as has been the case in each month since the survey began in August 2009.
Although weaker than seen in March, the latest expansion in new work intakes was sharp overall.
A number of survey respondents indicated that deliberate sales efforts had led to new contract wins in the latest period. New export business also rose strongly in April. That said, the pace of increase eased to a six-month low.
Continuing the trend observed throughout most of the survey history to date, payroll numbers in Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private economy increased in April.
Although solid, the rate of job creation fell below the historical average to the weakest since last November.
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