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Infra-annual statistics on capital expenditure and

company profits(Future work)

26 June 2007

Eun-Pyo HONG

OECD/STD/STES

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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