Business activity stabilised in the Australian private sector at the end of the first quarter of the year following a decline in February. Services activity continued to fall, while manufacturing growth softened. New orders were also unchanged in March, while job creation was the slowest in the 35-month survey so far. Relatively weak demand conditions led to softer business sentiment, with confidence around the 12-month outlook the lowest since June 2016.
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.
