The newly minted economic coverage at Business Spectator went through something of a trial yesterday with the awful capex data. Erstwhile but still employed bearish economist Callam Pickering was nowhere to be seen and instead we got this from Victoria Thieberger:
Actual new capital spending in the September quarter showed a depressing fall of 9.2 per cent, but this was partly offset by a modest upgrade to companies’ forecast expenditure for the 2015/16 financial year.
Unfortunately, as the country’s transition post mining collapse continues, the capex survey has a heavy overrepresentation of the mining sector and therefore usually suggests a more bearish view of the economy than other data — such as the robust employment numbers — that include the services sector.
