The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released data on capital expenditures (capex) for the June quarter, which registered a 0.5% seasonally adjusted fall in capex volumes over the quarter and a 1.0% decrease over the year (see below table).
The 0.5% quarterly decline missed market expectations of a 0.4% rise.
The first chart below shows actual capex by industry in dollar terms (rather than volume terms as shown above), which actually rose by 0.2% over the quarter. Mining capex (+2.3%) and manufacturing capex (+9.7%) rose in nominal terms, partly offset by “Other” capex (-1.7%) terms:
“Other” (services) capex (64% share) remains the leader, followed by mining capex (27% share), with manufacturing capex at a still dismal 8% in the June quarter:
It was a mixed bag across the jurisdictions, with rises across NSW, WA, NT and ACT mostly offset by falls across VIC, QLD, SA and TAS:
Today’s 0.5% real capex fall should detract from Q2 GDP when it is released early next month.
