The PSI comes after its sister survey, the performance of manufacturing index, fell 1.8 points to a seasonally adjusted 55.8 as the country's booming construction sector continued to support industrial production.
The composite index, which combines the two measures, dropped 2.4 points to 54.5 on a GDP-weighted basis and fell 1.8 points to 55.4 on a free-weighted basis.
Steel said the combined indices "suggest the economy is expanding at a rate around, or slightly above, trend. In numbers, this infers annual GDP growth circa 3 per cent".
The Reserve Bank last week forecast annual GDP growth of 2.5 per cent was likely to accelerate to 3.4 per cent in the 2017 and 2018 March years as the country's strong construction and tourism sectors continued to drive economic activity.
- BusinessDesk