Capex to fall almost 10pc in 2013/14, according to ABS data SKY-HIGH iron ore prices have failed to delay the peak of Australias mining investment boom, which looks set to occur before the middle of the year, new ABS data shows. Iron ore, Australia's biggest export, has surged beyond $US150 a tonne since December, but miners" planned level of investment this year is falling away. Companies expect to invest $168.24 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, according to the statistics bureau's fifth estimate for the year. The latest estimate of miners" expenditure on new plants, machinery and buildings for this financial year has fallen 2.7 per cent to $105 billion from the previous estimate three months ago. Manufacturers, which make up a small minority of total investment spending, fell 6.4 per cent to $9.4 billion. Arguably more worrying for Australia's economic prospects, the ABS quarterly survey showed that planned investment across all Australian industries next financial year is $152.5 billion, almost 10 per cent below what is expected for this financial year. Australia's resource-rich economy has been powered for the past decade by a mining boom but resource companies began scaling back investment in new mines and equipment last year amid a sharp slowing in demand for raw materials from China, the nation's biggest trading partner. Deutsche Bank macro strategist David Plank said it was a "downbeat outlook for investment over the course of 2013." AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said investment plans for this financial year were OK but next year's were disappointing. He said the slowdown in investment would mean that more interest rate cuts by the central bank are possible. "I believe they should cut in March but I'm not totally convinced they will," he said. Although planned investment is falling, it remains at very elevated levels. Planned mining investment next year is still more than doubled the recorded amount from two years ago. Manufacturing investment, however, has dwindled to around $9 billion from $12 billion over the same period. The ABS said private capital spending overall was down 1.2 per cent in the fourth quarter to almost $41 billion. Economists had expected a 1 per cent month-on-month increase.