New capital expenditure falls 0.1 per cent
Private new capital expenditure (capex) fell 0.1 per cent in the March quarter 2025, to be 0.5 per cent lower than the March quarter 2024 (seasonally adjusted, chain volume measures), according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said: ‘Business investment fell 0.9 per cent in the non-mining industries, while the mining industry rose 1.9 per cent.’
New equipment and machinery fell 1.3 per cent driven by a 2.0 per cent fall in non-mining equipment. This was partly offset by a 2.4 per cent rise in mining equipment.
‘Information media & telecommunication drove the drop in equipment and machinery capex, down 17.9 per cent,’ Mr Ewing said.
‘The fall sees spending ease back from record levels, following a rise of 19.8 per cent in the December quarter 2024. The series remains 5.2 per cent higher than the same quarter last year.
‘Service industries including professional, scientific & technical services, finance & insurance and other services also fell, as businesses invested less in IT equipment and motor vehicles.’
Capex was up 0.9 per cent for buildings and structures, with the mining industry up 1.7 per cent and non-mining rising 0.4 per cent.
‘The growth in mining was driven by spending on oil & gas, gold, and other metal ore developments,’ Mr Ewing said.
‘The health care & social assistance, transport, postal & warehousing, and information media & telecommunication industries also added to the growth.’
The largest falls for states and territories were in Victoria (-5.3 per cent), Northern Territory (-13.2 per cent), and Queensland (-0.9 per cent). The largest rises were in South Australia (+11.1 per cent), and Western Australia (+2.1 per cent).
Figures released today also include updated expectations of planned capex for both the 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years.
Businesses revised up their expected capex spend by 2.2 per cent (in current prices) for 2024-25. Expected spending for 2025-26 rose by 5.6 per cent since the last estimates three months ago.
More detailed industry and state analysis and further information on the statistical methodology is available in New Capital Expenditure (cat no. 5625.0).
The ABS gratefully acknowledges the contributions of businesses across Australia in providing data for this release.
Media notes
- New capital expenditure refers to the acquisition of new tangible assets and includes major improvements, alterations, and additions.
- All statistical figures in this media release are in seasonally adjusted volume terms unless otherwise noted.
- Seasonal adjustment is the process of estimating and removing seasonal effects to allow comparison of data for adjacent months. See methodology for more details.
- When reporting ABS data, you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
- For media requests and interviews, contact the ABS Media Team via media@abs.gov.au (9am-5pm Mon-Fri).
- Subscribe to our media release notification service to get notified of ABS media releases or publications upon their release.
- Watch our data crash course, designed especially for journalists to learn how to find, download and interpret our data.
- Follow the ABS and Census social media channels: F: absstats X: @ABSStats I: @absstats Li: absstats F: 2026CensusAU