Private Capital Expenditure Subdued

Private Capital expenditure figures point to GDP figures for the March qtr next week showing a decline. If this happens it will satisfy the technical definition of a recession with two consecutive negative quarters. The drop in investment by companies was a record 8.9% for the first qtr of 09 which is the sharpest reversal in more than 12 years.

There are signs, it's reported, of even bigger cut backs to come with estimates investment could plummet by up to 20% or more next financial year. This drop in investment will continue to push unemployment up and and increase the risk of a deeper recession.

In the USA an interesting, although dour statistic is that about 12% of US homeowners are late on loan repayments or are in the foreclosure process. This illustrates that the housing crisis there is likely to persist for at least another year.