Australia business investment slips

SYDNEY, Sept 03 (Reuters): Australian business investment took a surprising fall last quarter as miners wrapped up work on some major projects, though a sizable upgrade to spending plans for the year ahead suggested the pullback was just a speed bump.

Investment slipped a seasonally adjusted 2.5 per cent in the June quarter to an inflation-adjusted Australian $29.1 billion (US $21.2 billion), data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.

That missed forecasts of a 0.6 per cent gain, but investment in the previous quarter was revised sharply higher to show an increase of 1.2 per cent.

Spending on equipment, plant and machinery fell 0.9 per cent and pointed to a very small drag on economic growth in the second quarter.

The data nudged the Australian dollar a fraction lower to $0.7293.

Figures due next week are likely to show Australia's A$1.8 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by anywhere from 0.6 per cent to 1.0 per cent in the quarter.

The outlook for the period ahead was positive, as firms across all industries revised up their spending plans for the financial year to June 2019.

The latest estimate for 2018/19 came in at A$102 billion, above analysts' expectations of around A$100 billion and 16 per cent higher than the previous forecast.

"This in turn will be a key driver of growth in employment and the economy over the next year."