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SYDNEY, April 1 Asia Pulse - According to a new survey released today, Australia's manufacturing performance improved in March.
This was consistent with moderate growth in the economy.
The Australian Industry Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) rose 4.6 points to 55.6 last month.
The rise was underpinned by stronger output growth, reflecting a build-up in the pipeline of new orders from late 2003, a need to replenish stocks and a response to the Australian dollar, which eased off a seven-year high set in February.
The manufacturing activity is consistent with non-farm gross domestic product (GDP) of around 3.5 per cent, the survey companies said in a statement.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said that the result pointed to reasonable growth over the first three months of 2004, although margins continue to be squeezed.
The PMI is a seasonally adjusted national composite index based on the diffusion indexes for production, new orders, ...
Source: HighBeam Research, AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURING ACTIVITY STEPS UP.