OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators 2025

3. Investment

Context and key findings

Disaggregating investment and capital by asset type provides valuable insights into the key drivers of GDP and productivity growth. This approach makes it possible to evaluate developments in specific areas, such as the extent of investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Moreover, each asset type contributes differently to economic performance, influencing both GDP and productivity in distinct ways.

In an increasingly digital economy, the most valuable firms – across high-tech, pharmaceutical, automotive, and financial services industries – derive a large share of their competitiveness and market value from intangible rather than physical capital. The growing adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) further underscores the importance of investments in intangible assets, such as data, marketing, and organisational capital. Despite their critical role in driving innovation and competitiveness, their coverage in national accounts remains limited. However, the 2025 revision of the System of National Accounts will include investments in new types of intangibles, such as data assets (SNA, 2025[1]).

Key findings

• In about half of the OECD countries, the investment rate, measured as gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) as a share of GDP, grew in 2023, with the most significant increases observed in Norway, Slovak Republic and Türkiye. In contrast, Hungary and Colombia experienced the largest declines, with investment rates in 2023 dropping by two or more percentage points. Among the G7 countries, investment rates remained broadly stable, except for France where they declined by around 0.5 percentage points (Figure 3.1).

• Dwellings and other buildings and structures made up the largest portion of total investment in 2023, exceeding 50% in almost two thirds of the countries (Figure 3.2). However, patterns differed across OECD countries: investment in Dwellings as a share of GDP fell in most cases compared to 2022, whereas investment in Other buildings and structures increased in the majority of member countries (Figure 3.3).

• Intellectual Property Products (IPP) in 2023 also accounted for a significant portion of investment in several countries, contributing to more than a third of total capital formation in Ireland, Switzerland and the United States. By contrast, investment in IT equipment constituted the smallest share in most countries (Figure 3.2). However, investment in both IT equipment and IPP decreased as a proportion of GDP over the same year (Figure 3.3).

• Investment in Other machinery, equipment, and weapons played a significant role in driving investment rate growth in several countries, such as Bulgaria, and Slovak Republic and accounted for the largest share of total investment among both SMEs and large firms in both countries (EIB, 2023[2]; EIB, 2023[3]). In Costa Rica and Latvia, a decline in investment relative to GDP in this category was the main factor behind the overall reduction in investment rate growth (Figure 3.3).

• Over half of the OECD countries experienced a decline in the investment rate in ICT assets in 2023 and around half of the countries reported reduced investment in intangible assets. The largest declines in ICT asset investment were observed in Mexico and New Zealand, while the largest increases were recorded in Slovak Republic and Czechia. For intangible assets, Ireland and Israel reported the largest increases, whereas Slovenia and Denmark experienced the largest declines. In most countries, however, the magnitude of changes – be it an increase or decrease – was relatively smaller for ICT and intangible assets compared to tangible and non-ICT assets, partly reflecting the dominant share of the latter in the overall asset composition (Figure 3.4).

Indicators

Figure 3.1. Annual change in investment rate

2023, Total economy, Percentage points

Source: OECD Productivity Database (2025).

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Figure 3.2. Decomposition of investment by assets

2023, Total economy, Percentage of total GFCF

Note: In Australia, ownership transfer costs are included in total GFCF but not allocated to specific assets, causing the sum of GFCF by asset to be lower than the total. In Korea, ICT equipment is included in Other machinery equipment and weapons systems. In Canada and the United States, total GFCF excludes GFCF in Cultivated biological resources.

Source: OECD Productivity Database (2025).

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Figure 3.3. Annual change in investment rate by asset type

2023, Total economy, Percentage points

Source: OECD Productivity Database (2025).

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Figure 3.4. Difference in investment rate by asset type

2023, Percentage points

Source: OECD Productivity Database (2025).

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How to read the indicators?

The 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA, 2009[4]) recommended a minimum level of asset breakdown (Table 3.1). For the measurement of capital stocks and capital services, homogeneous asset groups with similar price deflators and depreciation patterns are required. The 2008 SNA enlarged the asset boundary by capitalising expenditures in weapons systems and research and development (R&D), which were previously considered as intermediate consumption.

The asset breakdown differs from the one recommended by the 2008 SNA for a few countries. In Korea, ICT equipment is included in Other machinery equipment and weapons systems. In Australia, ownership transfer costs are included in total GFCF but are not allocated across assets. Consequently, the sum of GFCF for individual assets is lower than total GFCF for this country. In Norway, total GFCF excludes investment in weapons systems. In Colombia and Türkiye, the classification of GFCF by type of asset is not available. Therefore, only total GFCF is presented. In Canada and the United States, total GFCF excludes GFCF in Cultivated biological resources.

As discussed in Chapter 5, the 2025 update of the System of National Accounts (SNA, 2025[1]) expands the asset boundary to include additional intangible assets, most notably data, cloud services, Artificial Intelligence, and digital platforms as subcomponents of intellectual property products. These changes aim at improving the relevance of capital measurement in the context of a digital economy. For further information, consult the description of the OECD Productivity Database (OECD, 2025[5]) and the OECD Productivity Statistics – Methodological notes at: www.oecd.org/sdd/productivity-stats/OECD-Productivity-Statistics-Methodological-note.pdf.

Table 3.1. Breakdown of fixed capital assets according to the System of National Accounts 2008

Tangible assets	N111	Dwellings	Non-ICT assets
	N112	Other buildings and structures
	N11M	Machinery and equipment and weapons systems
	N1131	Transport equipment
	N1132	ICT equipment	ICT assets
	N11321	Computer hardware
	N11322	Telecommunications equipment
	N110	Other machinery and equipment and weapons systems	Non-ICT assets
	N115	Cultivated biological resources
Intangible assets	N117	Intellectual property products
	N1171	Research and development (R&D)
	N1172	Mineral exploration and evaluation
	N1173	Computer software and databases	ICT assets
	N1174	Entertainment, artistic and literary originals	Non-ICT assets
	N1179	Other intellectual property products

Source: OECD elaboration based on the 2008 System of National Accounts.

Data sources

OECD National Accounts Statistics (database), http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/1v7.

OECD Productivity Statistics (database), http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/1v8.

OECD Productivity Dashboard, www.oecd.org/en/data/dashboards/oecd-dashboard-of-productivity-indicators.html.

References

[2] EIB (2023), EIB Investment Survey Country Overview 2023: Bulgaria, European Investment Bank (EIB), 2024.

[3] EIB (2023), EIB Investment Survey Country Overview 2023: Slovakia, European Investment Bank (EIB), 2024.

[5] OECD (2025), The revamp of the OECD Productivity Database, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/f07c55d4-en.

[1] SNA (2025), System of National Accounts 2025, United Nations, https://doi.org/10.18356/9789211073225.

[4] SNA (2009), System of National Accounts 2008, United Nations, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/docs/SNA2008.pdf.