Financial News: Australia Manufacturing PMI Fades In May - S&P

Australia Manufacturing PMI Fades In May - S&P Global

(RTTNews) - The manufacturing sector in Australia continued to expand in May, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Thursday with a manufacturing PMI score of 50.2.

That's down from 51.3 in April, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The decline in overall new business gained momentum in May, signaling the strongest drop since September 2021. There were similarly solid contractions in order books across both monitored sectors. Panel members often linked this to muted market conditions as a result of raised uncertainty due to war in the Middle East.

The survey also showed that the services PMI fell to 47.7 in May from 50.7 in April, while composite PMI dropped to 47.8 from 50.4.

As has been the case across each month of the year so far, business sentiment across the Australian private sector was down again in May. The level of confidence was the joint-lowest seen since the inception of the survey over ten years ago (in line with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020), with panelists noting worries about costs, potential interest rate hikes and challenging market conditions.

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