Why 2016 was good for Australian manufacturing

Australian manufacturing displayed promising signs in 2016 with both sales and exports of manufactured goods gaining strength. Namely, the Australian Industry Group's performance on the manufacturing index rose by 1.2 points in December from November to 55.4 points.

Ai Group Chief Executive Inness Willox explained that manufacturing production, sales, exports and new orders all grew strongly in December, despite a small dip in employment in the sector that month. He said that these combined conditions were "providing a running start to the new year."

Food and beverage production, as well as machinery production were among the strong areas of manufacturing in the month. Australia’s new orders index grew 1.1 points to 60.6 points.

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SOURCE: [MarketWatch]