Business conditions in Uganda’s private sector continued growing in the month of July, with activity expanding at a rate unchanged from the month of June, according to the latest survey of purchasing executives.
The Stanbic Bank Uganda purchasing managers’ index stalled at 53.2 in July from June, above the 50-point level that signals an improvement in business conditions on the previous month.
The strengthening reflects “ongoing expansions in output and new orders amid reports of strengthening client demand,” said IHS Markit, the global research firm which produces the index.
“Companies responded to rising workloads by taking on extra staff and upping purchasing activity,” it said.
Both overall input costs and output prices, however, continued to increase. Indeed, output prices have risen for all the 26 months the survey has been conducted.
“Private sector activity remains solid and could further benefit from the ongoing public investment in infrastructure,” Jibran Qureishi, Regional Economist East Africa at Stanbic Bank said.
He said firms in Uganda would gain from the government’s intentions to clear domestic arrears over the course of the financial year 2018/19.
“Headline inflation, however, could continue rising over the coming months owing to new tax measures and the lag pass-through impact of the weaker exchange rate from May and June,” he said.