New Zealand – Performance Services Index for July

Not usually a market focus, and indeed the NZd is barely changed on the release.

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More:

  • PSI for July was 58.4
  • Up 3.2 points from June
  • PSI has averaged 56.5 points so far for 2014
  • All five main sub-indices were again in expansion during July
  • New orders/business (64.1) improved 5.3 points after consecutive months showing lesser expansion
  • Activity/sales (61.4) rose 6.4 points and a return to levels of expansion last seen in April
  • Employment (54.0) rose from June
  • Stocks/inventories (53.1) was the only sub-index to drop, falling 1.9 points from the previous month
  • Supplier deliveries (56.5) rose 2.6 points to its highest result since June 2007
  • Activity continued to remain positive throughout the country, with all regions showing improvement from June
  • The seasonally adjusted BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Composite Index or PCI (which combines the PMI and PSI) for July saw the two options for measuring the PCI both improve from the previous month. The GDP-Weighted Index (57.5) increased 2.6 points from the previous month, while the Free-Weighted Index (55.7) rose 1.3 points from June. The strong increase in activity for the services sector meant the GDP-Weighted Index increased more than the Free Weighted one.

BusinessNZ chief executive Phil O’Reilly:

  • “The rise in expansion levels was across the board, with all sub-indexes and regional indexes showing growth. New orders/business was particularly strong, while activity/sales also moved back into significant expansion”
  • “Looking at comments from respondents, those of a positive nature now sit at 65.8%, which has been trending upwards over the last few months”

BNZ Senior Economist Craig Ebert:

  • Says recent surveys suggest New Zealand’s service sector is in particularly good heart, with service sector firms looking to invest more in plant machinery, equipment and staff.