Prior month 47.2Services PMI (Business Activity): 49.2 (prev. 47.2) \u2192 6th month below 50 (contraction)<\/p>\n
Composite PMI: 49.9 \u2192 just below expansion threshold<\/p>\n
New Orders: Increased (first rise since Nov 2024)<\/p>\n
Employment: Increased (first gain since Aug 2025)<\/p>\n
Selling Prices: Highest increase in 2 years<\/p>\n
Input Costs: Remain elevated (unchanged vs prior month)<\/p>\n
Confidence: Highest in 18 months<\/p>\n
Summary of the data<\/p>\n
Activity & Growth
\nService sector still contracting, but decline is the slowest in 6 months<\/p>\n
Composite near stabilization as manufacturing strength offsets services weakness
\nDemand & Orders
\nNew business edged higher, signaling early stabilization<\/p>\n
International sales still falling sharply<\/p>\n
Weak activity tied to soft underlying demand and uncertainty
\nEmployment
\nHiring increased modestly for the first time in ~8 months<\/p>\n
Additional staff helped reduce backlogs
\nInflation & Costs
\nInput costs remain elevated, driven by tariffs, energy, and wages<\/p>\n
Firms passed through higher costs, lifting selling prices sharply
\nRisks & Drivers
\nTariffs and Middle East conflict continue to raise costs and weigh on demand
\nOutlook
\nConfidence improved to an 18-month high<\/p>\n
Firms expect gradual recovery in activity and demand<\/p>\n
Outlook remains uncertain due to geopolitical and trade risks
\nBottom line
\nServices sector still contracting but stabilizing, with early signs of improving demand and hiring, while inflation pressures remain elevated<\/p>\n
Paul Smith, Economics Director at S&P Global Market
\nIntelligence:\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst Canada\u2019s service sector continued to contract,
\nit did so only marginally in April. Moreover, against the
\nbackdrop of tariffs and the war in the Middle East,
\noverall performance wasn\u2019t too bad when viewed in
\nthis context. Positively, new business volumes were
\nup marginally, the first growth seen since November
\n2024 whilst there was also a small rise in employment.
\nConfidence in the outlook also improved to an 18-month
\nhigh with firms pointing to government initiatives as
\nsupporting wider economic growth in the year ahead.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat being said, the sector continues to face noticeable
\nheadwinds, especially in relation to US tariffs and
\nthe war in the Middle East. Both continue to have
\ninflationary implications, with firms signalling that
\noperating expenses are rising sharply and at a rate just
\nbelow March\u2019s nine-month peak. The degree of pass
\nthrough to clients also suggests that firms are keen to
\nprotect margins wherever possible, with selling price
\ninflation picking up to its highest level in two years and
\nraising some alarm bells for policymakers as they scour
\nthe economic news flow for signs of elevated inflationary
\npressures.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prior month 47.2Services PMI (Business Activity): 49.2 (prev. 47.2) \u2192 6th month below 50 (contraction) Composite PMI: 49.9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-413249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}