National Accounts Revisions and Investment Data

But because not all EU member states have yet
published their revised data, the European comparison
presented here is based on the latest figures from the
AMECO database (as of May 2014).

The revisions do
not alter the conclusions of this report.
The revisions principally affect the category
of »other investment«, which is a component of
capital formation but not discussed in the present
report. Under the revision, spending on research and
development is now categorised as investment under
»other investment«, rather than as intermediate
consumption. This increases value creation in the
private sector. Largely on account of this change,
between 1991 and 2013 German gross fixed capital
formation as a percentage of GDP is on average
1.7 percentage points higher than shown in Figure 1a.

However, the data revision does not alter the
picture for the investments in equipment and
construction under discussion here. The average rates
of investment in equipment, housing construction
and non-residential construction for 1991 to 2003 lie
about 0.1 percentage points below the pre-revision
figures.

The shape of the curve is almost unchanged.
The reason for the slight fall is that overall GDP is
now higher because of the inclusion of spending on
research and development. The absolute levels of the
investment categories under discussion are practically
unchanged.