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Investments by companies in assets such as factories, machinery or construction – also called gross fixed capital formation – make up around 30% of GDP and are its second largest contributor following private consumption.

"Given that there are fixed capital budgets in all government departments, there is very little room for them to manoeuvre as well, so you're in a kind of Catch-22 situation."

As this graphic from the Reserve Bank of Australia shows, "residential gross fixed capital" as a proportion of GDP is close to 20% in China — the comparable proportions in Australia, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. are all around 5% or less.

Gross fixed capital formation added 0.1 points and net trade a further 0.7 points as imports declined.

The negatives were household spending and gross fixed capital formation.