The accelerated depreciation tax changes announced late last year by the federal government are welcome news for corporations, and it’s possible that in anticipation of the changes, investment decisions were postponed. If so, we should begin to see a pickup in the first quarter of this year, which would be consistent with recent quarterly readings from our Business Outlook Survey.
We will have an updated survey to further inform our April decision. Next up is exports, where the profile was also weaker than expected. One bright spot in exports was services, which grew by more than 6 per cent in the quarter, led by commercial and travel services.