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November 27, 2014FIXED CAPITAL ASSETS, 2013 Statistics Canada has released details of fixed capital asset acquisition for 2013. Last year, private non-residential investment grew by 7.3 per cent in Nova Scotia (all figures are in real terms - adjusted to 2007 constant prices), while national investment growth was flat. Government non-residential real investment growth was 9.4 per cent in Nova Scotia, compared with a drop of 1.6 per cent nationally. Real residential investment growth was 0.9 per cent in NS (vs. -0.6 per cent nationally).
Over the long run, Nova Scotia's real private sector investment per worker has generally lagged the national average, with periodic bursts of activity. In recent years, NS real investment per worker has been short of the national average as investment projects in resource-rich provinces outpaced non-resource provinces.
The result of this accumulation of investment is much higher real net capital stock per worker in resource rich provinces. In comparison, Nova Scotia's private sector real net capital stock per worker has changed little over the past three decades (as new investment just keeps ahead of depreciation of existing assets).
Public sector investment and capital per worker are considerably more even across the country, but have also grown little in real terms over recent decades.
Statistics Canada:
Fixed Assets, 2013