The Australian Industry Group Performance of Services Index for December

Comes in at an improved rate of expansion of 52.0 and 10 consecutive months of expansion

  • prior (November) was 51.7)

The 'key findings' highlighted by AiG:

Of the five activity sub-indexes

  • new orders, employment and supplier deliveries expanded (results over 50 points),
  • stocks (inventories) were roughly stable
  • and sales contracted

The Australian PSI showed considerable variation in activity across the sub-sectors in December, as it has through 2017. Four of the nine sub-sectors expanded, one was stable and four contracted (trend).

Conditions continue to look better in the business oriented sub-sectors than in the consumer-oriented sub-sectors

  • Hospitality accelerated into expansion (up 4.8 points to 53.4 points) while property and business services expanded more rapidly (up 2.9 points to 65.5 points).
  • Conditions stayed positive but slowed in wholesale trade (51.9) and personal and recreation services (51.8).
  • Financial and insurance services slowed to a stable rate at 49.8 points.
  • Contraction was evident in retail trade (44.5); health and community services (42.5); transport and storage (41.7) and communication services (41.1 points).

Respondents in the business-oriented sub-sectors noted continuing demand from their construction and mining customers, but limited pricing flexibility due to strong competition.

  • Respondents in the retail and hospitality subsectors reported weak or hesitant customer spending due to cost of living pressures.

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Earlier today we got the Australian

And, earlier in the week we got both the manufacturing PMIs for December:

If you'd like to stay tuned, we'll be getting the third and final instalment of the Aussie PMIs on Monday - the AiG construction industry PMi for December