Contraction in Private Sector’s Economy Persists: BLOM Lebanon PMI at 46.3 in July

The private sector’s economic activity remained firmly in contraction area in July, as revealed by Lebanon’s PMI released by Blominvest Bank. BLOM PMI stood well below the 50 mark, which separates economic growth from contraction, with a slight monthly improvement. This has reflected another downturn in the private sector’s business conditions during the seventh month of year mainly resulting from the substantially low levels of output and inflows of new orders. Commenting on the July 2017 PMI results, Myrna Chami, Senior Economist at BLOMINVEST Bank, said: “The month of July failed to register any substantial change in the rate of deterioration of the private sector’s business conditions. This could be related to the waves of uncertainties that overshadowed the country after the ratification of the long-awaited salary scale. Rising debates emerged in July and were related to the financing of the public sector’s salary scale by a series of tax increases. Still, the favourable impact of recovering tourism can yet hit the real sector and revive private business activity for the period to come.

Full details about July’s results are available in the below BLOM PMI reports:

LB_PMI_ENG_1708_Press Release

LB_PMI_ENG_Report

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *