Purchasing Managers’ Index of Standard and Poor’s Global recorded a slight increase at 47.7 points last October against 46.6 last September but remained within the contractionary range since December 2020.

A state of pessimism dominated the non-oil private sector companies, as the index showed a positive outlook of only 4% for the next year, the lowest percentage in more than a decade.

The overall non-oil private sector activity, including manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail, and services, witnessed a sharp decline. The reasons for this are solid and rapid inflationary pressures, rising input costs, and continued import restrictions. “Egypt remains severely affected by the war in Ukraine, particularly the Egyptian tourism sector as well as sectors affected by the government’s import ban decision since March to preserve US dollar reserves,” said David Owen, an S&P economist. The value of the Egyptian pound has fallen sharply after the Central Bank of Egypt announced the liberalization of exchange rates to obtain new financing from the International Monetary Fund.