It bounced with great fanfare then the air came out of the balloon:
The latest Commonwealth Bank Flash Composite PMI® pointed to subdued business conditions in Australia at the start of the final quarter of the year. Output rose at a softer pace amid the weakest new order growth since April. Business confidence also softened and firms raised their staffing levels only marginally. Meanwhile, input costs continued to increase at a marked pace, leading firms to raise their own selling prices to the greatest extent since last November in a bid to protect profit margins.
Stuck at stall speed with a nasty employment trend:
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David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
