Investment outlays down by 17.7% y-o-y in H1

2010-08-26

Large and medium-sized companies employing 50 or more people reported total investment expenditure of just under PLN 34.5bn (approx. €8.6bn) in the first half of 2010, which in real terms translates into a decline of 17.7% y-o-y, according to the Central Statistical Office (GUS).
Expenditure on machinery, plant and equipment – the largest category, which represents almost half of the above total − shrank by 21.8% in comparison with the corresponding period of the previous year. Outlays on buildings and structures (accounting for nearly 39% of all investments) slumped by 20.8% y-o-y. On the other hand, investments in transport equipment increased by 24.3% y-o-y.
Of the main sectors of the economy, investment outlays declined the most (by 39.8% y-o-y and by 33.7% y-o-y, respectively) in construction and manufacturing. Sharp falls also occurred in, e.g., the trade & repair of motor vehicles (by 24.4% y-o-y), mining and quarrying (by 22.8% y-o-y), and information and communication (by 21.2% y-o-y). On the other hand, investments surged by 7.8% y-o-y in water supply, sewerage and waste management and remediation activities, while they remained unchanged in the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector. Meanwhile, in the case of the country’s manufacturing sub-sectors, only textile manufacturers increased their capital expenditure (by over 43% y-o-y). The manufacturers making the most drastic reductions in outlays during this period were those operating in the following branches: basic metals (by 61.6% y-o-y), wearing apparel (by 54.7% y-o-y), coke and refined petroleum products (by 54.5% y-o-y), computer, electronic and optical products (by 52.6% y-o-y) and other non-metallic mineral products (by 51.4% y-o-y).
By way of comparison, in 2009 investment outlays dipped 11.9%.