The latest Commonwealth Bank Flash Composite PMI® pointed to a much stronger contraction of the Australian private sector during April, with the decline particularly severe at service providers. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led new orders to fall at a steep pace, with employment scaled back markedly as a result. Both input costs and output prices decreased, but this was reflective of trends in the service sector as manufacturing inflation trends accelerated.
And the kicker:
You may not see that again in your lifetime. Full report.
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.
