Australia AiG Performance of Services Index rose 1.6 pts to 53.3 in August. Looking at some details, sales rose 2.6 to 51.9. Employment rose 0.8 to 53.2. New orders rose 6.7 to 57.3. Input prices dropped -5.6 to 68.7. Selling prices dropped -2.2 to 61.2. Average waged dropped -1.3 to 67.6.
Innes Willox, Chief Executive of Ai Group, said: “Services remained in expansion in August, pointing to the overall resilience of the sector with sales, employment and new orders all higher than in July…. Price and wages pressures continued into August although the pace of increase in input prices eased somewhat. With service businesses highlighting interest rates as a key area of concern, the Reserve Bank’s decision yesterday to raise the cash rate by another 50 basis points to 2.35% will further fuel their fears of a fall in spending in the months ahead.”
