There appears to be a desire to have ‘excess’ capital returned to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, rather than utilising that capital for investment with uncertain returns (Graph 7). [8]  http://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2017/sp-dg-2017-11-13.html  8/13  13/11/2017  Business Investment in Australia | Speeches | RBA  Graph 7  Note that cost reduction does not necessarily imply lower investment.
Achieving greater automation or process efficiencies is quite likely to require some amount of capital spending. Heightened uncertainty Several studies suggest that heightened uncertainty has weighed on investment in a number of countries. [9] Indeed, construction of measures of uncertainty has become something of a cottage industry.