This occurred due to an increase in sales volume in June for the first time since August 2021, in addition to current signs of promoting economic stability as policies tend to relax price pressures and enhance demand prospects.

Furthermore, output levels witnessed the softest decline in almost three years, while the volume of input purchases increased for the first time since December 2021.

New business intakes at non-oil firms also increased, as the number of firms with enhanced demand was bigger than those with a decreasing one.

Although the manufacturing and services sector witnessed a hike in new orders, the construction, wholesale, and retail sectors suffered a decline, providing a mixed picture of the market.

According to surveyed firms, enhanced conditions in domestic and international markets resulted in a sales upturn.

Moreover, the firms reported a large rise in the number of new export orders in June, the highest over two and half years.

“Another positive is that price pressures have remained much cooler than in the first quarter of this year during the country's foreign currency crisis,” stated David Owen, senior economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

He noted that June exhibited the fastest increase in inputs' prices in three months, mainly due to the high volatility in market prices and the accelerating inflation trend.

Additionally, the annual headline inflation rate reached 27.1 percent in June, while the monthly headline inflation rate increased from -0.8 percent in May to 1.8 percent in June.

Non-oil firms also plan to expand their capacity due to the increased total sales with the input purchases rising in June. Despite some companies even boosting their output, this was outweighed by a decline in production by other companies.

Meanwhile, the contraction rate of outputs decreased for the fourth month and was the lowest in three years.

Employment in the non-oil sector remained stable with some firms planning to increase their workforce to meet the rising sales. However, other companies reported layoffs and no replacement for the laid-off workers.

The June survey data showed that inflationary pressures on businesses decreased in the second quarter of 2024. Nevertheless, the rising materials prices raised costs in the past three months.

However, the input price inflation rate was still less than at the start of the year when Egypt had a foreign currency crisis.

In March, the Central Bank of Egypt announced the flotation of the Egyptian pound and increased interest rates by six percent to resolve the foreign exchange shortage crisis.