Egypt’s private non-oil sector is confident about future business activity, as optimism in the post-pandemic recovery of the economy also grew in September, according to the latest IHS Markit report.

Overall optimism climbed to the highest recorded level since April 2012, the London-based economic intelligence firm said, with around 71 percent of respondents giving a positive forecast.

This improvement is driven by Egypt’s vaccination campaign, as well as the easing of travel measures around the world that support the country’s tourism activity.

But the report showed Egypt’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) - which measures conditions of a country’s non-oil private sector economy - fell to a four-month low in September at 48.9, from 49.8 in August. This is below the 50 neutral mark for the tenth month in a row, signaling a contraction in the non-oil economy.

“While the latest PMI data pointed to non-oil output and new orders declining at the end of the third quarter, these reductions were only slight, while the two indices remained above their long-run averages for the fifth month in a row,” David Owen, an economist at IHS Markit, said. 

The report also found employment numbers rising for the third successive month in September, although job creation remained mild.