Egypt Non-Oil Private Sector Contracts For Second Month

(RTTNews) - Egypt's non-oil private sector contracted for a second consecutive month in April, as firms cut staff amid a dearth of new business, results of a survey by Markit Economics and HSBC Bank showed Tuesday.

The purchasing managers' index declined slightly to a three-month low of 49.5 in April from 49.8 in March. Any score below 50 indicates contraction in the sector.

"The signs of stability are welcome, but after suffering such heavy losses Egypt needs growth and there's still no evidence in the PMI that the economy is regaining momentum," HSBC economist Simon Williams said.

"We're still hopeful that when the elections are complete, the economy will start to normalise. But meaningful recovery is likely to be a story for 2015, not for this year."

In April, total new orders declined in April, largely hurt by the ongoing fragile political conditions in the country. New export business fell at the fastest pace since September last year.

As a result, companies reduced their staff again in April, stretching the current sequence of decline to 24 months. The reduction in employment was mainly due to retirement of employees and the search for better job opportunities, the survey said.

Input price inflation slowed from March and was below the long-run series average. Output prices were flat in April.