New capital expenditure rises 6.4 per cent
New capital expenditure rises 6.4 per cent
Private new capital expenditure (capex) rose 6.4 per cent in the September quarter to be 6.9 per cent higher than the September quarter last year (seasonally adjusted, chain volume measures), according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Tom Lay, ABS head of business statistics, said: ‘the lift in investment was the result of a large rise in spending on data centres, and investment in air transport.’
‘The rise is the largest increase since March quarter 2021. Business investment rose 8.6 per cent in the non-mining industries, while the mining industry rose 0.9 per cent.’
Information media and telecommunications saw the largest rise of any industry, up 40.7 per cent.
New equipment and machinery rose 11.5 per cent. Non-mining equipment and machinery rose 13.0 per cent, while mining equipment and machinery rose 4.5 per cent.
‘Investment in data centres reached new highs, driving the strong rise in equipment and machinery capex for the information media and telecommunications industry, which went up 91.5 per cent,’ Mr Lay said.
Transport, postal and warehousing also contributed strongly to the rise in equipment and machinery, up 40.7 per cent, with more investment in air transport.
Capex was up 2.1 per cent for buildings and structures, with non-mining industries up 3.6 per cent. This was partially offset by a fall in mining, which was down 0.4 per cent.
‘Spending on large projects in manufacturing, accommodation and food services, and information media and telecommunications industries, drove growth in buildings and structures,' Mr Lay said.
The largest rises for states and territories were in South Australia (+8.2 per cent), Queensland (+7.3 per cent), and Victoria (+6.7 per cent).
This release also includes the fourth estimate for planned capex for 2025-26. Businesses revised their expected capex for 2025-26 to be up by 9.4 per cent since their last estimate.
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