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INVESTMENT AT CURRENT PRICES


Investment represents over a quarter of GDP. Understanding which sectors are investing and expanding their future economic capacity provides an insight into the underlying dynamics within the economy.

As a proportion of GDP, investment by Non-financial corporations generally fell during the 1970s and was reasonably stable up to the 1990s. It has generally been above 10% and in 2005-06 investment by Non-financial corporations was 13.2% of GDP. Household investment as a proportion of GDP declined steadily between 1959-60 and 1973-74 but has since remained steady at around 10% of GDP. In 2005-06 the ratio to GDP was 10.5%. General government investment as a proportion of GDP peaked at 4.5% in 1975-76 and has generally fallen since then. It was 2.1% of GDP in 2005-06 The highest ever level of Financial corporations investment, expressed as a proportion of GDP, was recorded in 1989-90 (2.0%). It has generally fallen since and was 0.8% of GDP in 2005-06.

Investment, By Sector - relative to GDP

View underlying data tables as a Lotus 123 File: 5204.0 Table 70. CAPITAL STOCK, By institutional sector, 31Kb
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In terms of the different asset types, in 2005-06 Non-dwelling construction represented the largest percentage (31.0%) of total gross fixed capital formulation. This percentage has grown over the past 10 years.

View underlying data tables as a Lotus 123 File: 5204.0 Table 69. CAPITAL STOCK, By type of asset, 42Kb
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Over the same period the investment in Machinery and Equipment has fallen from around 36.2% to 31.0% in 2005-2006. The relative share of investment in most assets types have remained stable, with the exception of Computer Software. Investment in Computer software peaked at 6.9% in 2000-01 before trending down to reach 4.7% in 2005-06.