The first is that the increased emphasis on technology and the shift to an increasingly serviceoriented economy explains some – but only some – of the subdued levels of investment spending over recent years. Rather, the bulk of the explanation for low levels of investment lies in what has been going on within individual industries, not shifts across industries.
In most industries, the ratio of investment spending to output has been relatively low over recent years (Graph 9). Graph 9  The second conclusion is that, from a longer-term perspective, it is plausible that non-mining investment will account for a lower share of GDP than used to be the case.