from an ceonomies student
Provisional estimates for the second quarter of 1965 of the volume of industry's capital expenditure (at 1958 prices, seasonally adjusted) shows a small reduction, about 2%, from the level of the previous quarter. This, taken with a negligible increase in the first quarter of the year over the preceding quater, indicates a levelling out of the underlying trend of investment, Compared with the first quarter the main fall was in expenditure on plant and machinery, and there were also decreases for vehicles and building work. For manufacturing industry, capital expenditure is provisionally estima~ ted to have fallen by 5% (on the same basis); most industrial groups showed small decreases,
It should be noted that these figures are for a period before the Callaghan cuts and before many of the Government's restrictive measures had time to "bite." Combined with the cuts in Government expenditure, this trend reinforces the view that we are in for a rising curve of unemployment.