In 2001, the OECD published the Manual Measuring Capital to provide guidance to the concepts and practice of capital measurement. Since then, a number of developments have taken place, and most notably the revision of the 1993 System of National Accounts. The revision entailed many issues with regard to non-financial assets that also affect the original Capital Manual. The present document is a revision of the 2001 Manual, to take account of new developments and to ensure consistency with the revised System of National Accounts.

In the past, in many statistical offices, the main purpose of measuring capital was to provide a basis for the calculation of consumption of fixed capital so that net measures could be derived in the national accounts.

The measurement of consumption of fixed capital remains a key reason for capital measurement but two additional objectives have increasingly gained in importance: establishing balance sheets for economic sectors and measuring capital services for the analysis of production and productivity.

The main objective of this Manual is to deal with these additional objectives and to present an integrated and consistent approach towards capital measurement that encompasses different measures of capital stocks (gross, net and productive stock) alongside with the relevant measures of economic flows (investment, depreciation and capital services).

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