Bowen to gauge the economic vibe at G20 In a week when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) again cut its world growth forecasts, the upcoming Group of 20 meeting in Russia couldn't be more timely. Treasurer Chris Bowen will attend the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's top 20 developed and developing economies in Moscow on July 19 and 20. The IMF trimmed its world growth forecasts made in April by 0.2 percentage points for both 2013 and 2014 to 3.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively, blaming slower than expected growth in developing countries, It cut the outlook for Australia's Asian trading partners, including a notable 0.6 percentage point downgrade to Chinese growth in 2014. The G20 deliberations come at crucial time for the Australian economy as the mining investment boom fades and initiatives are sought to fill the gap by the non-mining sectors. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told the National Press Club on Thursday that managing this economic transition is now a "core task" of economic policy. This week the government kick-started a new tax incentive to support up to $25 billion in new private sector infrastructure spending. In a joint statement on Friday, Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese and Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said the reform would support major transport projects and make international gateways more competitive. Still, a new report by global credit rating agency Standard & Poor's estimated that capital expenditure (capex) by Australian corporations will suffer its worst downturn in a decade over the next two years, and a bigger decline than during the global financial crisis. "The scaling back of mining-related investment is projected to bring an abrupt reversal of the very strong capex growth seen in the past two years," S&P credit analyst Terry Chan says. Capex could fall by 12 per cent in 2013 and more than 20 per cent in 2014, reversing growth of more than 20 per cent in each of the previous two years. However, low Australian interest rates appear to be making their mark on one non-mining sector - housing. Data on Friday showed demand for mortgages grew for a fifth straight month in May, with the largest number of loans granted since November 2009. Loans to owner-occupiers rose by 1.8 per cent in May to 49,636, to stand 10 per cent higher than a year earlier. National Australia Bank senior economist Spiros Papadopoulos believes the Reserve Bank of Australia will be comforted to see the housing sector improving. But he expects the softness in the rest of the economy and rising unemployment mean a cut in the cash rate in August remains on track if inflation data on July 24 is low.