Regional PMIs - March 2026

• The S&P Global PMI survey for the UAE fell to 52.9 in March, from 55.0 the previous month.
• The S&P Global PMI survey for Dubai was at 53.2, down from 54.6 in February.
• The Riyad Bank PMI survey for Saudi Arabia was at 48.8 in March, down from 56.1 the previous month.
• The S&P Global PMI survey for Egypt slipped to 48.0 in March, down from 48.8 in February.

The outbreak of the Iran war weighed on the regional PMI surveys in March, with a notable slowdown in the headline indices compared with the first two months of the year. The S&P Global PMI surveys for the UAE and Dubai both stayed in positive 50-plus territory, underscoring the resilience of the local economy, but there was a notable slowdown and there were indications of the survey's impact throughout the survey's subcomponents and respondent's anecdotal answers. Meanwhile, the Riyad Bank PMI survey for Saudi Arabia dipped below the neutral line, dropping to 48.8 in March, the first contractionary reading for the index since August 2020. In Egypt, the pace of the contraction accelerated modestly as the S&P Global index fell to 48.0, down from 48.8 previously.

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