10 July 2017
But 12-month business confidence is still weighed down over pace of growth

Dubai: Dubai’s private sector activity recorded a fairly strong surge through June, with the influential Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker Index registering a score of 56.5 and up from May’s seven-month low of 55.

Interestingly, wholesale and retail was rated as the best performing category and benefitting from the Ramadan and Eid consumer activity, and followed by construction. The travel sector experienced the slowest improvement in business conditions.

“The June Dubai Economy Tracker survey supports our view that Dubai’s economy has grown at a faster rate in H1-2017 compared with the same period last year,” said Khatija Haque, Head of MENA Research at Emirates NBD.

But the June gains have not rubbed off on business confidence towards the 12-month outlook. In fact, it has slowed to the “weakest since August 2016. Firms expect greater marketing and sales efforts, combined with improvements in overall business conditions will lead to output growth in the coming 12 months,” the report notes.

In June, some improvement did happen in employment within private business last month. “However, the pace of job creation was marginal overall,” it states. “An increase in payroll numbers across the wholesale and retail sector offset declines seen in the construction and travel and tourism sectors.”

Inflows of new business continued to rise for the sixteenth consecutive month during June. The rate of expansion was faster than May’s seven-month low, matching the trend seen for output. Survey respondents reported that the increase in new orders was supplemented by enhanced marketing and promotional discounting initiatives.  

© Gulf News 2017