In Dubai, businesses are adding jobs at fastest pace since November 2019
What’s interesting is that the expanded hiring took place while the pace of growth had slackened just a bit. S&P Global economist David Owen notes that the growth dip was the first in months, ‘but was still one of the strongest seen in the past three years, as firms saw new business volumes increase at a rapid pace. “Firms looked to boost labour capacity and prepare for higher workloads.”
Businesses were also helped by lowered material costs and on their transportation, for a second time in three months. This enabled a ‘solid reduction in output charges’.
For October, Dubai’s PMI was at , from . in September. But the score is well above the median, which indicates that businesses are still making those capital deployment on new inventory, equipment, workforce additions, etc. In August, the Dubai PMI had hit its highest post-pandemic number, at ..
The slight downward movement in the PMI was driven by a fall in the output sub-index , which indicated a weaker, but still substantial expansion of business activity at the start of the fourth quarter, the S&P Global report adds.
The retail and wholesale category was the best-performing, and notching up its best showing since July . November and December returns could be even higher, as the sector awaits the full lift from end-of-year sales promotions and the FIFA World Cup visitor inflows.
With their cost of operations dropping, Dubai-based firms were cutting their selling prices at a solid and accelerated rate in October, says S&P Global. In fact, the level of discounting was the quickest seen for more than two years, with the wholesale and retail sector registering the sharpest decline.
Construction was the only sector that raised output charges.