Investment Survey, fourth quarter 2019
Business sector invested SEK 385.2 billion in 2019
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2020-03-02 9.30
The real estate sector accounted for the largest percentage of total investments, 42 percent, while the industrial sector accounted for 19 percent.
In 2019, the real estate sector accounted for the largest investments, SEK 161.7 billion in total. New construction, extensions and rebuilding of existing buildings accounted for SEK 71.4 billion of these investments, while housing accounted for SEK 59.4 billion.
The industrial sector made investments amounting to SEK 72.4 billion, of which machinery and equipment accounted for SEK 58.8 billion. Investments by electricity, gas and heating plants, water and wastewater plants and waste facilities amounted to SEK 56.9 billion, which corresponds to 15 percent of total investments in 2019.
Machinery and equipment is the largest asset class
In 2019, enterprises invested most in the machinery and equipment class of assets. These investments accounted for 49 percent, SEK 187.7 billion, of total investments. Construction, extensions and conversion of buildings accounted for 27 percent, and housing accounted for 16 percent of total investments. Purchases of buildings and plants accounted for 8 percent, SEK 31 billion, of total investments in 2019.
Planned investments in the manufacturing industry
According to the results of the Investment Survey, planned investments are expected to amount to SEK 340.8 billion (in current prices) in the manufacturing industry in 2020. This is 12 percent less than in 2019.
Investment survey gets new design in 2019
The investment survey was revised in various ways between 2018 and 2019. The questionnaire was redesigned to better align with accounting principles in enterprises; references to BAS accounts were added and the investment concept was adapted. Following this change, ‘investments’ refers to the acquisition of tangible assets with an economic life of at least three years, which can be compared to the previous definition that included investments in assets with an economic life of at least one year.
Expenditure on repair and maintenance and new leasing contracts have been removed from the questionnaire; forecasts are now only requested on a yearly basis, rather than per quarter. In future, results from the Investment survey will be published four times a year, rather than three times a year. These changes may lead to some breaks in the time series.
Definitions and explanations
All data in this item of statistical news is reported in current prices.
The population frame is collected from Statistics Sweden’s Business Register. All enterprises with at least 200 employees are included, while enterprises with 20–199 employees are sampled. Enterprises in the industrial sector with 10–19 employees are estimated based on investment information from enterprises with 20–49 employees. In some activities, enterprises with 5–199 employees are sampled.
The survey comprises the industries under industry codes B–G, SNI 49 (excl. 49.32), 51–53, 58, 61–63, 64.1, 65, 68 (excl. 68.204), 71–75 and 77–82 according to Swedish Standard Industrial Classification SNI2007 (which corresponds to NACE Rev.2).
Next publishing will be
The next statistical news in this series will concern quarter 4 and will be published on 28 May 2020 at 09:30.
Statistical Database
More information is available in the Statistical Database
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.