Extreme caution among consumers and businesses has left Australia's services sector struggling, new figures show.
The sector contracted for the tenth month in a row in December, with just one out of nine sub-sectors experiencing expansion.
The Australian Industry Group performance of services index rose by 3.7 points to 47.5 in December - well below the 50-level separating growth from decline.
The only sub-sector to expand in December was health and community services, Wednesday's figures show.
The continued weakness suggested a fragile outlook for the summer trading period, the report said.
Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said the sector was hoping for stronger spending in 2015, fuelled by the lower Australian dollar.
"The recent fall in the Australian dollar is very welcome, but it seems it is still too soon to see any significant benefits for local activity," Mr Willox said.
Survey respondents remained concerned about the level of consumer spending due to weak economic conditions, fragile confidence and slower growth in household disposable income, Mr Willox said.
Meanwhile, demand for business-to-business services like accounting and administration was also being dampened by the decline in mining construction and manufacturing investment, he said.
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