(RTTNews) – The manufacturing sector in Australia continued to expand in January, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 52.3.
That’s up from 51.6 in December and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
Manufacturing production expanded at a quicker pace at the start of the year owing to rising new work inflows. Better market conditions and an improvement in foreign demand reportedly underpinned the increase in new orders. The rate at which overall new business grew was the quickest since last August, supported by the first expansion in new export orders in five months.
In response to rising new work inflows, Australian goods producers continued to raise their staffing levels in January. The rate of employment growth was notably the strongest in almost three years. Greater workforce capacity enabled companies to further clear their outstanding workloads.
