The activity in Japan's services sector observed a slight decrease in May compared to the previous month, but landed above the neutral 50 mark, with the Jibun Bank Japan Services Business Activity Index coming at 53.6, compared to the previous month's figure of 54.3, S&P Global said in its preliminary report on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Manufacturing PMI rose from 49.6 in April to 50.5 in May to signal that Japanese manufacturing business conditions improved for the first time in a year. The composite PMI, which takes into account the results achieved in the two aforementioned sectors, increased from last month's 52.3 to 52.4.
"Japan’s private sector expansion accelerated for a third successive month to the fastest since August 2023. This indicated that growth momentum continued to improve midway into the second quarter of 2024 and hints at a better Q2 GDP reading, after the disappointing first quarter print," Jingyi Pan, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said.
