Australia’s mining investment, which peaked in 2012/13, is forecast to fall further over the next three years and employment will follow suit, as the industry is only halfway down the so-called mining investment cliff, analysis by economists from the National Australia Bank (NAB) has shown.
As the once-in-a-century mining boom came to an end, NAB Group Economics estimates that mining capital expenditure (capex) has fallen from 8% of gross domestic product (GDP) at its peak to about 4.5% currently. However, the bank stated on Friday that mining capex was set to fall to 1.5% of GDP by late 2018.
