Australian PSI®: Services sector recovery delivers strongest result in almost 18 years

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Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, said: "Australia’s services sector maintained its momentum in May with particular strength in logistics; business & property; and retail trade & hospitality services. Health & community services continued to grow and personal & recreation services were broadly stable. The strength in the business-facing services sectors reflects the healthy levels of activity currently evident in the construction, manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors. Across the services sector, sales and employment grew impressively and input costs, wages and selling prices continue to rise at a steady clip. With existing capacity well utilised, and with reports of labour shortages becoming more common, conditions were in place for a substantial lift in investment in the sector. Although new orders for services grew strongly in May, close attention will now be on the impacts of the latest cluster of cases and the Victorian lockdown on business sentiment in the weeks ahead," Mr Willox said.

Australian PSI® – Key Findings for May 2021:

• Four of the five services sectors available in the Australian PSI® indicated expansion in May (see table below); the remaining sector, personal, recreational & other services, was broadly stable (down 0.2 points to 49.8).
• Four of the five activity indices in the Australian PSI® – sales, new orders, employment, and deliveries – showed positive results in May (see table below), with just the finished stocks index dropping to broadly stable levels (down 9.8 points to 49.3).
• The input prices index moderated slightly but remained elevated in May (down 1.6 points to 68.1), marking eleven months of increases following the index’s record low in June 2020. The average wages index jumped up in May after moderating in April (up 7.2 points to 63.1), indicating increasing wage pressures for services businesses seeking skilled staff. Selling prices rose for a fourth month to reach a record high as businesses passed on business cost increases (up 2.0 points to 63.4).

Full report (available 8.30am): www.aigroup.com.au/resourcecentre/economics/

Results above 50 points indicate expansion. Trend indexes in the Australian PSI® are calculated with a Henderson 13-month filter formula.

na: Results are not available for this sector in this period due to unusually low survey response numbers. All sectors are included in the total results.

NOW AVAILABLE:
Click here for full list of 2021 release dates for the Australian PSI®

Background: The Ai Group Australian PSI® is a leading indicator of services activity in the Australian economy. It is a seasonally adjusted national composite index based on the diffusion indices for sales, orders/new business, deliveries, inventories and employment with varying weights.  An Australian PSI® reading above 50 points indicates that services activity is generally expanding; below 50, that it is declining. The distance from 50 is indicative of the strength of the expansion or decline.  Results are based on a sample of around 200 companies each month.  

Media Enquiries: Tony Melville: 0419 190 347