Australia's services industry has made a disappointing start to the new year, with a fourth consecutive month of contraction.
The Australian Industry Group's Performance of Services Index (PSI) lifted 2.1 points to 48.4 points in January but remains below 50, although the sector is shrinking at a slower pace.
Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox says the result highlights the patchy nature of growth in the local economy.
He says pockets of growth are still limited to consumer-oriented sub-sectors like health, hospitality and personal services.
And, he's called on the federal government to implement a more sustainable budget to help the ailing industry.
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"Weakness in the services sector points to the risks of budgetary measures with near-term contractionary impacts," he said.
The lower Australian dollar had been a double-edged sword for retailers, with trade continuing to face uneven demand for consumer goods, he said.
"More consumers (are) shopping locally again, but higher wholesale prices for imported products have proved difficult to pass on in a low-inflation and highly competitive environment," Mr Willox said.
Activity is fragmented in the business-facing sub-sectors like finance, IT and transport with the exception of businesses linked to capital city housing.
"The property and business services... had a good run of expansion in the third quarter of 2015, but conditions deteriorated in the final months of 2015," Mr Willox said.
Meanwhile, the wages sub-index fell into contraction for the first time since June 2009.
