A poll of 200 companies (including 170 private sector companies) by CRISIL Research has revealed that capital expenditure (capex) by Indian corporates will dip by 14 per cent in 2012-13. At 35 per cent, the decline in investments of the private sector companies polled will be far steeper. Moreover, close to half of those polled indicated that they have no intention of investing in new projects this year. Over 70 per cent of those polled also indicated that policy logjam was amongst the top two factors responsible for the current slowdown in investments.

At an overall macro-economic level, the key finding is that capex by corporates is slowing. The planned capex for those polled is expected to be 14 per cent lower in 2012-13 compared to the previous year. It comes on the back of a 4 per cent fall in capex in 2011-12. The 200 companies polled account for around 70 per cent of the market capitalisation of all companies in the S&P CNX 500 (excluding banking and financial services companies).