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Story: Investment

Types of capital, 2007

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These two graphs show the investment in different types of assets in the year ended March 2007. The top graph represents the gross investment, and the bottom graph shows net investment, taking into account the effect of depreciation – the reduced productive value of the investment over time. The most striking difference between the two graphs is the high proportion of investment in the top graph in plant, machinery and equipment (over a third), which drops to under a tenth in the net investment graph. The reason for this is that equipment gets worn out and obsolete rapidly so it suffers from a high rate of depreciation. By contrast houses and buildings depreciate much more slowly so that all buildings (both residential and other buildings) constitute over two-thirds of the net investment.

Using this item

Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Source: Statistics New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Brent Layton, Investment – Public and private investment after 1980, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/24124/types-of-capital-2007 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Brent Layton, published 3 March 2010.