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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released data on capital expenditures (capex) for the December quarter, which registered a 2.8% seasonally adjusted fall in capex volumes over the quarter and a 5.8% decrease over the year (see below table).
The 2.8% quarterly decline badly missed market expectations of a 0.5%. rise
The first chart below shows actual capex by industry in dollar terms (rather than volume terms as shown above), which fell by 2.4% over the quarter. Mining capex (-2.1%), manufacturing capex (-9.3%) and “Other” capex (-1.5%) all declined:
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.