5 February 2015

2015- n° 28

According to business leaders, in the manufacturing industry, investment will increase by 3% in 2015 Industrial investment survey - January 2015

Surveyed in January 2015, business managers estimated that investment in the manufacturing industry increased by 2% in 2014. They revised up by 2 points their previous expectations given in October 2014.

For 2015, business managers in the manufacturing industry forecast that their investment will increase by 3% compared to 2014. They revised by 6 points upwards their previous expectations given in October 2014. This upward revision concerns all sectors. It is important for the manufacture of food products and beverages (+9 points), that of transport equipment (+7 points) and for the other manufacturing industries (+7 points). In the sector of electrical and electronic and machine equipment, the revision is smaller (+2 points).

In January 2015, industrial leaders that forecast an increase in their investment between H1 and H2 2014 are more numerous than business managers that anticipate a decrease. In July 2014, the balance of opinion for this period was close to 0%.

For H1 2015, more business managers anticipate an increase than a fall in their investment.

The investment revision indicator has again increased after a decrease during H2 2014. Based on investment amounts reported in at each survey by business leaders of the manufacturing industry (manufacture of food products and beverages and coke and refined petroleum products excepted), this indicator is well-correlated with quarterly variations in fixed capital formation of non-financial enterprises. Therefore investment of NFEs is likely to increase during Q1 2015.