The non-oil business activity in Dubai’s private sector sustained a robust growth in January for the ninth consecutive month as consumer demand improved along with employment in the emirate, latest data shows.

The business conditions across the Dubai non-oil economy pointed to a further slowdown in growth momentum at the beginning of 2023, but rising demand and stable input costs encouraged increases in employment and inventories while average selling prices continued to fall.

“These developments were partly supported by an improving supply chain environment, as delivery times shortened to the greatest extent since September 2019,” according to S&P Global purchasing managers’ index.

The seasonally adjusted S&P Global purchasing managers’ index eased to 54.5 points in January from 55.2 in December, indicating a stability above the neutral 50 mark that separates economic expansion from contraction. The index dropped for the fourth time in five months, falling from 55.2 in December to its lowest since February 2022.

Strong demand environment

The survey further pointed out that non-oil companies continued to indicate a strong demand environment in January with higher customer orders, increased advanced bookings and new projects commencing.

“The rate of new order growth remained marked overall, boosted by the strongest increase in new work at construction firms for three-and-a-half years. Subsequently, business activity levels continued to rise sharply at the turn of the year, although like new orders, the pace of expansion was the second-weakest for 11 months,” according to the survey.

The Dubai Statistics Centre’s data showed that the emirate’s economy recorded 4.6 per cent year-on-year growth during the first nine months of 2022. However, the experts and research reports indicate that the emirate will be able to register over five per cent GDP growth in 2022.

Referring to Emirates NBD research, they said Dubai’s economic growth will be eased to 3.5 this year after hitting five per cent growth rate in 2022.

Source: Khaleej Times