Saudi PMI settles at 57.5 points in December

Riyadh city

The seasonally adjusted Riyad Bank Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), formerly S&P Global Saudi Arabia PMI, remained unchanged at 57.5 points in December 2023.

The index indicated a significant improvement in the Saudi non-oil private sector and showed that new orders helped the rapid rise in business activity, with companies seeing the fastest rate of sales growth since June.

Saudi non-oil producers continued to report a significant rise in activity levels during December, almost equivalent to November and recorded by all sectors under study.

Companies mainly linked the expansion of production to increased new business flows, which increased at the fastest rate since June. Moreover, the pace of sales growth was also among the fastest recorded in the past nine years, as companies commented on the presence of new customers and improved demand conditions, the report added.

Non-oil producers purchased more supplies, with the latest data pointing to a marked increase in total purchases, helped by a sharp and accelerated rise in inventory levels compared to November.

The companies also benefited from a significant drop in average supplier delivery times, the largest since the study began 14 years ago.

The PMI is a weighted average of the following five indices: