Business investment grew by a smaller-than-expected 1.1 per cent in the December quarter, but expenditure plans for this financial year and next remained solid.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said total private capital expenditure for the final three months of 2021 was $33.3 billion.
Economists had expected a larger rebound after the Delta lockdown-induced decline in the September quarter.
The data feeds into next Wednesday's national accounts for the December quarter.
However, the latest estimate for planned investment in 2021/22 was a total $140.8 billion and 1.6 per cent higher than the previous estimate three months.
The survey conducted in the early stages of 2022 also found the first estimate for 2022/23 was $116.7 billion, 10.8 per cent higher compared to the first estimate for 2021/22.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated the government isn't about to step in and freeze fuel excise to try to mitigate record high petrol prices.
Global oil prices have neared $US100 a barrel on escalating tensions between the Ukraine and Russia, which has prompted a spike in petrol prices in Australia in recent weeks.
The prime minister says the price of fuel is a global issue.
"The advice we are getting, particularly out of the International Energy Agency, is that this impact is likely to be short-term, it's likely to temporary," Mr Morrison told the Nine Network on Thursday.
"You don't go and completely recalibrate your budget based on fluctuations in oil prices."
Outgoing Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims told the National Press Club on Wednesday with petrol taxation in Australia the fourth lowest in the world he wouldn't be recommending that the government step in and do anything.
Rising fuel costs have been a key driver of rising inflation in the past year, with the consumer price index currently standing at 3.5 per cent.
In contrast, the December quarter wage price index released on Wednesday showed that while annual wage growth is growing at its fastest pace since mid-2019, at 2.6 per cent it is lagging well below the rate of inflation.
The wage price index is used by Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia to monitor wage growth.
But Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the wage price index didn't take into account the record number of people taking up new job opportunities in the labour market.
"Treasury analysis (shows) these people are getting pay increases on average of eight to 10 per cent off the back of a record number of job ads which are 34 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels," he said.
But separate research also shows while the average Australian household has never felt better financially, there are concerns around the prolonged impact of COVID-19 and cost of living pressures creeping in.
The ME household financial comfort report found one-in-three respondents predicting a negative long-term impact from COVID-19 and a near-record two in five are worried about the cost of living.
Its financial comfort index is sitting at 6.04 out of 10, an increase of three per cent from a year ago and eight per cent higher than its pre-pandemic level in December 2019.
However, ME consulting economist Jeff Oughton said such comfort was being eroded by the rising cost of necessities such as rent, food and fuel at a time of relatively subdued income growth.
