This is the Australian Industry Group's Performance on Manufacturing Index for Australia in December 2017

A fall to 56.2 in December's results from the 57.3 in November's. This contrasts with the CBA survey (link is down the bottom of this post) which came in much stronger in December compared with November.

So ...

  • 56.2 for AiG
  • and 57.1 for CBA,
  • AiG's down
  • CBA's up

The thing both have in common though are both are strongly in the 'expansion' area.

The key points from the report highlighted by AiG:

December marked a fifteenth month of expanding or stable conditions for the Australian PM

  • the longest run of expansion since 2005
  • The Australian PMI has now been growing or stable in all but two months (August and September 2016) since July 2015

All seven activity sub-indexes in the Australian PMI expanded in December

  • Production, stocks (inventories) and supplier deliveries expanded at an accelerated pace
  • while new orders, employment, exports and sales were slower, albeit still expanding in December

Six of the eight sub-sectors in the Australian PMI expanded in December (trend)

  • The very large food and beverages sub-sector strengthened further, with its index rising to its highest level since April 2016
  • The wood & paper sub-sector moved into contraction and the 'textiles, clothing, furniture and other' sub-sector stayed in contraction in December
  • The non-metallic minerals, machinery and equipment and wood & paper products subsectors remained positive but recorded their lowest monthly results of 2017 in December

Input prices (70.8 points) and wages (60.2 points) receded from recent highs in November, but are still above their long-run averages

Manufacturers continue to report problems with higher energy costs, but only some are able to pass on these cost rises to their customers

Participants in the Australian PMI noted stronger production to fill long standing orders, after improved business conditions throughout 2017. Some participants noted reduced export orders and/or sales in December, possibly in response to the fluctuating Australian dollar and slower building activity (mainly affecting the non-metallic minerals sub-sector)

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The Australian PMIs do not tend to have much of an immediate impact on the Australian dollar - they are more used as info on the economy.

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Earlier on today we got a different manufacturing PMI from Australia in December 2017 -