The rate of job creation in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) private sector was the highest in over four years in April as companies were encouraged to take on additional workers, according to the HSBC Emerging Markets Index (EMI).
It said the UAE’s non-oil producing private sector experienced a second month of consecutive record rise in activity in April, while both total new order orders and new export orders increased at sharp rates.
Non-oil activity in Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, rose at a slightly sharper rate than in March, while the increase in new orders was the quickest since the beginning of the year. New export business also rose in April, but the rate of growth was down from March’s joint-series high, said the report.
Egyptian non-oil private sector companies reported a renewed drop in output in April, ending a two-month sequence of growth. However, the pace of contraction was only marginal overall. New order intakes declined amid reports of ongoing fragile political conditions, it said.
The HSBC Emerging Markets Index, a monthly indicator derived from the PMI surveys, continued to indicate only a marginal increase in output across global emerging markets in April. The EMI posted 50.4, from 50.3 in March, well below its eight-and-a-half year long-run trend level of 53.9.
April data indicated falling output in the four largest emerging economies. Overall business activity across the Chinese manufacturing and services sectors declined slightly for the third month running, the longest sequence of contraction in over five years.
Meanwhile, private sector output in Russia fell at the fastest rate since May 2009. Indian business activity fell for the ninth time in 10 months, albeit marginally, while Brazil posted a fractional decline for the second time in four months.
Manufacturing output across emerging markets was broadly stagnant in April, while services activity growth was unchanged from March’s weak rate.
