1. 1 Infra-annual statistics on capital expenditure and company profits (Future work) 26 June 2007 Eun-Pyo HONG OECD/STD/STES

2. 2 For future work on Infra-annual statistics on capital expenditure and company profits, WP members were invited to express their views on 6 questions

3. 3 Q1: whether it would be useful to prepare an inventory of national practices for the collection, etc. of infra-annual statistics on (private) new capital expenditure? Useful: CAN, CHN, CZR, FIN, KOR, LUX, NDL, NOR, CHE, USA - No need or priority: BEL, SLV, ITA

4. 4 Q2: Who are (and should be) target users of infra-annual national statistics on capital expenditure (e.g. Central Banks, Treasuries, Private Sector) and what are their needs? - All areas: CAN, FIN, KOR, NDL, SLV, USA - NA: CZR - Can & USA specified the needs: - FRB: improve estimates of investment indicators for monetary policy. - BEA: refine annual estimates of investment in structures and equipment in the national income and product accounts, and to improve estimates of capital stock. - Department of Treasury: analyzing depreciation. - BLS: improve estimates of capital stock for productivity analysis

5. 5 Q3: Which sectors should be covered, e.g. total economy vs. sub-sectors or private vs. public? - Total economy: CHN, CZR, NDL, CHE - Total economy with sub-section: FIN, ITA, KOR, SLV, - USA (not too detail) - Some sectors: CAN

6. 6 Q4: What are possible (or plausible) sources of information for various sectors, e.g. survey or administrative sources in their country? - Survey: CHN, CZR, FIN, ITA, NDL, USA - Survey and Administrative: KOR, SLV

7. 7 Q5: What are the quality implications of using partially related data provided by other sources, or calculated as a residual in NAs, in the absence of survey or administrative data? Countries replied (e.g. FIN, USA, ITA, etc.) think that direct data collection will improve the quality of NA

8. 8 Q6: What would be the preferable (or practical) definition for capital expenditure and which variables should be collected? NA definition: BEL, FIN, KOR, LUXSLV, USA

9. 9 Proposal for future work On infra-annual quantitative statistics on private new capital expenditure, WP could work:  to identify and promote good practices for the collection, compilation and dissemination of data; and  to enhance the availability of such statistics across the OECD area.

10. 10 Proposal for future work (Continue) MCs to provide information on infra-annual capital expenditure: - Data (total and sub-sectors) - Methodological information (e.g. definition, compilation method, etc.) - Sources * OECD will provide MCs with a questionnaire in July