Australia's mining capex slides as the non-mining capex outlook improves

Two important reports on investment are due next week. The capital expenditure survey (Thursday) will provide figures on actual business investment in Q3 and, more importantly, firms' revised investment plans for 2015-16. It is anticipated that the expectations numbers will still point to a big drop in investment this financial year as mining capex is now falling at a rapid rate as work on the remaining mega projects finishes up. 

The non-mining outlook, which is more significant to the Reserve Bank, should show some improvement given that private-sector surveys are reporting that business conditions are back at above-average levels and capacity utilisation is trending higher. 

In the construction work done report (Wednesday), significant headline weakness are expected given last quarter's result was inflated by the importation of engineering equipment for one of the remaining gas projects. Aside from this volatility in engineering construction, which was not reflected in the equivalent series in GDP, strong rebounds are expected in both residential investment and commercial construction.