Investment returns!
There was a tidy 6 per cent lift in actual private new capital expenditure in the March quarter to $31½ billion.
This represents a long overdue return to private business investment and the best quarterly lift in 9 years.
Source: James Foster, ABS
Investment plans for 2021-22 also lifted towards $114 billion (Estimate 2), which was also the best annual uplift since the mining boom years of nearly a decade ago.
At the state level New South Wales, South Australia, and especially Western Australia have been standout performers for actual investment outcomes over the past year.
Investment in Victoria remained -8.4 per cent lower than a year earlier, and there are some concerns about how the 7-day snap lockdown might further disrupt plans over the next year.
Of course, over the long run there probably won't be too much impact, but the nightly news did contain reports of "lockdown dodgers" heading out of the state to escape the state's fourth lockdown of the past 15 months.
