Australian manufacturing continued its recent recovery in April with the Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index climbing 1.7 points to 59.2 points (results above 50 indicate expansion with the distance from 50 points indicating the strength of expansion). This was the seventh consecutive month of expansion for the Australian PMI and the strongest monthly result since February 2017 and before that, since May 2002.

All seven activity sub-indexes in the Australian PMI expanded in April. New orders remained elevated (61.5 points) while sales surged higher (65.5 points), as did production (60.7 points), exports (58.6 points) and employment (55.9 points). Inventories eased to a more modest rate of expansion (51.2 points) in April.