China's newly enriched consumer classes - now flooding the UAE's hotels and shopping malls - are the likely beneficiaries of a boom in the Chinese service sector.
The economic slump in the euro zone has slowed the Chinese manufacturing juggernaut, leading factory workers to take higher-paying positions, economists say.
Throughout the year, purchasing managers' index data show China's service sector has consistently outperformed its larger manufacturing industries.
The sector is not immune to the country's economic slowdown. The HSBC China Services PMI fell to 52 last month from 53.1 a month earlier, hitting a one-year low.
But the service sector continues to expand and has consistently outperformed manufacturing sector PMI this year, with a reading of 47.6 last month, signalling the 10th consecutive monthly deterioration.
A PMI reading of more than 50 signals expansion; below 50 signals contraction.
"Service providers reported another month of employment growth in August. Despite accelerating to the steepest since November of last year, the rate of job creation was slightly weaker than the long-run series average," wrote economists from HSBC and Markit, which compiles the PMI data.
"In contrast, manufacturers reported the sharpest decline in employment since March 2009."
The shift partially reflects the business cycle but also shows the success of Beijing's attempts to wean its economy off manufacturing jobs and into higher-paying service sector roles, said Glenn Levine, the senior economist for the Asia-Pacific region at Moody's Analytics.
"The upturn in the services sector is real and is likely to continue over the coming decade," he said.
"A large part of China's manufacturing is export-oriented and so firms are struggling in the face of weaker demand from the US and Europe. Conversely, China's services sector is geared towards the domestic economy, where demand is still holding up reasonably well."
ghunter@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
FIGHT%20CARD
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PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors