MNI 5 Things: Australia NAB Survey Points to Employment Growth

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By Sophia Rodrigues

     SYDNEY (MNI) - Following are the five things we learned from the National

Australia Bank business survey for April published Monday:

     --Business conditions more than reversed the fall in March to be up 6pts to

+21 and reaching its equal highest level since the survey began in March 1997.

Conditions were strongest in mining, followed by finance, business and property.

Conditions were weakest in the retail sector which turned negative for the first

time this year.

     --Employment sub-index rose 4 points to +13, and in trend terms was at the

highest level since the survey began. Both NAB's monthly and quarterly business

surveys point to robust jobs growth ahead. NAB is also pointing to rise in

capacity utilization which also suggest employment will continue to grow

strongly and the unemployment rate will move lower in time.

     --Inflation measures picked up in April except purchase costs which slowed

to +0.5% quarterly rate compared with +0.9% in March. Retail prices turned

positive, labor costs accelerated slightly and financil products prices rose

further.

     --One important negative was a fall in retail conditions into negative,

though in trend terms it remained positive. But offsetting this was a large

increase in conditions in personal and recreational services which has resulted

in reversal of the softening conditions that had emerged from late last year.

     --Business confidence rose 2 points to +10, and remained well above

historical average of +6 points. Confidence on a trend basis was strongest in

mining and construction.

--MNI Sydney Bureau; tel: +61 2-9716-5467; email: sophia.rodrigues@marketnews.com

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