Fall In Business Investment

Total business investment for the first quarter of 2009 was £3.4bn, down by £2.7bn on the previous quarter or 7.6%, compared with 9.7% on the previous year. The revised estimate for business investment for 2008 is up by 3.3% to £146.1bn on 2007. Total investment in manufacturing was £3,484m, construction £4,598m, services £24,177m and public corporations non-manufacturing £1,118m giving the total figure of £33,377m. The private sector spent a total of £1,519m on computer software and £1,543m on computer hardware which is a reflection of the increasing importance of that kind of investment.