Australia April preliminary PMI Manufacturing 49.9 (prior 47.3) Services 54.2 (prior 54.4)

Judo Bank S&P Global PMI Flash / Preliminary for April 2024

• Manufacturing nearly jumped into expansion at a 3-month high, but not quite hitting the 50 line.
• Services a tickle lower.
• Composite moves to its highest since April 2022

Some of the pertinent commentary from the report. On inflation pressure:

• The price indicators were up slightly in April,
  suggesting inflation within the Australian economy
  is above the RBA’s target and ‘sticky’.
• Cost pressures
  are rising, which survey respondents put down to a
  combination of higher raw materials prices and the
  effects of a weaker Australian dollar.
• While margin pressures are still evident in both
  the service sector and the manufacturing industry,
  businesses are still succeeding at passing on higher
  costs to final prices.

On the RBA, bolding is mine:

• The Judo Bank PMI highlights the resilience of the
  business sector in Australia. The business sector
  continues hiring and investing even as consumers
  remain cautious. With employment levels continuing
  to expand and pressure on household finances
  easing in 2024, this ‘soft landing’ view is increasingly
  being threatened by the ‘cyclical recovery’ view.
• The RBA will likely be concerned that a pick-up
  in activity, before inflation returns to target, could
  threaten medium to long-term price stability.
• These results are inconsistent with interest rate
  reductions at any stage in the foreseeable future and
  raise the risk that the RBA may have to start hiking
  again at some stage over the back half of 2024.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.