Qatar’s recent Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) survey results revealed that the region’s non-energy private sector economy ended 2020 with another above-par rate of growth.
The Qatar PMI indices are collected from survey responses from a panel of about 400 private sector companies including, manufacturing, construction, wholesale, retail, and services industries.
According to the results, total business activity increased at a relatively marked pace, continuing the trend shown since the rapid expansion in July and August as the economy bounced back from the lockdown-induced downturn in the second quarter of the year.
New business continued to expand at a rate above the long-run survey average, while outstanding work increased the most since July 2018 signaling increasing pressure from demand on business capacity. The companies continued to raise jobs and wages as buying costs for inputs continued to decline on average, enabling companies to hold prices charged constantly.
Sheikha Alanoud bint Hamad Al Thani MD – Business Development QFC Authority
“Qatar’s PMI remained at an elevated level in December, signaling that the non-energy private sector economy continued to expand at a relatively strong pace. Business conditions have steadily improved throughout the second half of 2020, following the sharp downturn in the second quarter as the economy locked down to successfully combat the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, the volume of outstanding business is rising at the fastest rate in nearly two-and-a-half years, boding well for the first quarter of 2021.”
The PMI marginally eased from 52.5 in November to 51.8 in December, roughly in line with the average of 51.9 for the fourth quarter and well above the long-term trend level of 49.6. In December, overall market operations continued to grow at a comparatively high pace.
PMI
The manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) is an indicator of economic health for the manufacturing sector. The purpose of the PMI is to provide information about current business conditions to company decision-makers, analysts and purchasing managers.
Each country PMI survey for the manufacturing sector is based on questionnaire responses that cover the following economic variables, such as output, new orders, new export orders, backlogs of work, output prices, input prices, suppliers’ delivery times, stocks of finished goods, the quantity of purchases, stocks of purchases, employment and future output.
