Australia also slows

While Commonwealth Bank's relatively new PMI (Purchasing manager index) ticked up in August, the trend is clearly down.  It's still above 50%, which indicates that the economy is still advancing, but the downtrend in this index suggests that the economy is growing less fast than it was.

This downtrend is likely to continue.  House prices are falling, the world economy--particularly China--is slowing, real wages growth is zero . . . .