Business activity in Saudi
Arabia’s non-oil private sector slowed in December from the
previous month’s record high, with declines in output and new
orders pulling the index lower, a purchasing manager’s survey
showed on Monday.
The SABB HSBC Saudi Arabia Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI),
which measures the performance of the OPEC member’s
manufacturing and services sector, eased to 61.3 points in
December from November’s 62.2 point peak.
The seasonally adjusted index is still holding well above
the 50 point mark that separates growth from contraction.
The private sector of the world’s top oil exporter saw
output levels slow to 69.2 points from a series record of 71.8
last month.
Although the output index slipped from November, it
continued to signal a substantial monthly increase in the
kingdom’s non-oil private sector activity, the survey said.
“Approximately 43 percent of the survey panel raised output
since November,” it wrote.
New orders from customers dropped slightly to 68 points from
last month’s 68.1, but still pointed towards improving market
conditions and company expansions boosting demand, the survey
participants said.
Job creation stayed robust in December at 54 points with
one-tenth of companies hiring new staff.
Unemployment stands at around 10 percent in Saudi Arabia
where the government is trying to spur private sector growth and
create more jobs for its growing population of more than 18
million.
“In order to keep output growth in line with the upward
trend in demand, Saudi Arabian non-oil private sector firms took
on new staff, raised buying activity and built up inventories in
December,” HSBC said.
“Both employment and input stocks increased markedly, while
purchases rose considerably.”
Inflation in the biggest Arab economy and OPEC’s top
exporter has been on the decline, slowing to 5.8 percent in
November after reaching an 18-month peak of 6.1 percent in
August.
In a Reuters poll, analysts forecast the country’s economy
will grow by 4.3 percent in 2011.
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