Service sector business activity fell for the third time in the past four months in February, and at the quickest rate on record. New business, employment and backlogs of work also fell across the sector, albeit marginally. The rate of input cost inflation meanwhile eased further in February, down to a ten-month low. Nonetheless, the increase in operating expenses remained marked, and contrasted with only a modest rise in average output charges.
Now foreasting recession in domestic demand:
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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.
