Gross investment in material assets in the Industry. By activity groups

The Structural Business Statistics in the Industrial Sector (called the Industrial Survey of Companies prior to the reference year 2014) is the main source of structural information on the industrial sectors. This sample survey is performed annually by the INE in collaboration with the Idescat. Its fundamental objective is to provide information on the main structural characteristics of industrial companies (production, sales, export, intermediate consumptions, investment, etc).

The basic unit used in the research is the company, defined as a legal entity constituting an organizational unit for the production of goods or services, one having certain autonomy in terms of decision-making, principally as to allocating the resources it has at its disposal. The company is the unit that reports (roviding the data requested by the survey) and is also an observation unit (the data required by the questionnaire refers to the company).

The population examined in the Industrial Companies Survey consists of the group of companies whose main activity falls within those found from sections B to E in the Catalan Classification of Economic Activities (CCAE-2009): mining, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, water supply, sanitation, waste management, and decontamination. A company's main activity is understood to be the one generating its greatest added value; if this does not apply, it is the one providing employment to the greatest number of people. Until 2007, the classification used was CCAE-93.

Investment in material assets is the amount of increases in value produced for different types of asset, which originate from purchases of new or used assets from third parties, from the production of one's own assets or from work done by the company or third parties on already existing elements in order to increase production capacity, performance or useful life. This is the gross investment. Until 2007, the investment was calculated as a difference between real increases in the value of capital and the sales of said resources. Investment operations are accounted for as their total value. Purchases are valued at acquisition cost, without including deductible VAT but including transport, installation costs, registration and notary costs and other non deductible taxes. Work done by the company using its resources is valued at cost price. Does not include investments in property made to obtain income or capital gains.

The changes made to Industrial Companies Surveys carried out from the 2008 results caused a methodological division within the series that hinders inter-annual comparisons, both in terms of the total amount of industry as well as most sectors and a large number of variables.

In 2011, the Survey widened and improved coverage of the energy sector (division 35 of the CCAE-2009) and, in 2013, the waste management sector (division 38 of the CCAE-2009).

Until the year 2012, the Survey focussed its field of study on industrial companies with at least one employee. From 2013 onwards, the population scope was widened to include industrial companies without employees and the territorial scope was widened to include companies in Ceuta and Melilla.

Several methodological improvements were applied to the Structural Business Statistics in 2016 as part of the Project for the integration of the structural economic surveys.

From 2019, the results for Spain are shown using the statistical companies unit, while for Catalonia the results continue to be shown in legal units.

For further information about these statistics, you may check the methodology.