Data extracted on 28 April 2025.
Planned article update: 25 July 2025.
Highlights
In Q4 2024, business investment rate down to 21.4% in the euro area and down to 22% in the EU.
In Q4 2024, business profit share rate down to 38.6% in the euro area and down to 39.3% in the EU.
Source: Eurostat (nasq_10_ki)
This article focuses on a selection of indicators from the quarterly sector accounts for non-financial corporations in the European Union (EU) and the euro area. Covered are, among others, the business investment rate and the profit share of non-financial corporations. A similar article focuses on quarterly sector accounts for households, covering, among others, the household saving rate and the household investment rate.
Business investment rate down in the euro area and in the EU
In Q4 2024, the business investment rate in the euro area (EA-20) decreased to 21.3% from 21.8% in the previous quarter. In the EU, the investment rate decreased, reaching 22% in Q4 2024, compared with 22.3% in the previous quarter. The peaks in Q2 2017, Q2 2019, Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 can be attributed to imports of intellectual property products reflecting the impact of globalisation.
These data come from a detailed set of seasonally adjusted[1] quarterly European sector accounts released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union and the European Central Bank (ECB).
Source: Eurostat (nasq_10_ki)
The business profit share decreased in both the euro area and the EU during Q4 2024. In the euro area, the profit share was 38.6% compared to 38.8% in the previous quarter. Similarly, in the EU, it was 39.3%, a decrease from 39.5% recorded in Q3 2024.
Source: Eurostat (nasq_10_ki)
The decrease in profit share within the euro area can be explained by a slight increase in business gross value added (+0.9%) and in compensation of employees (wages and social contributions) plus taxes less subsidies on production (+1.3%). On the other hand, investment (gross fixed capital formation) decreased by 1.2% in the euro area, contributing to the overall decrease in business investment rate.
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Source: Eurostat (nasq_10_nf_tr)
Data sources
The compilation of the European sector accounts follows the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010) and covers the period from Q1 1999 onwards.
Institutional sectors bring together economic units with broadly similar characteristics and behaviour, namely: households (including non-profit institutions serving households), non-financial corporations, financial corporations, government and the rest of the world. In the latter, to measure the external transactions of the euro area / EU, it is necessary to remove cross-border flows within the area concerned.
The ECB and Eurostat publish integrated non-financial and financial accounts, including financial balance sheets, for the euro area. Eurostat also publishes the non-financial and financial accounts of the European Union.
Eurostat's dataset includes detailed annual sector accounts by country and derived key indicators, which also include the indicators that combine non-financial and financial accounts, such as debt-to-income ratios.
Eurostat's dataset includes detailed Sequence of accounts and derived key indicators, which also include the indicators that combine non-financial and financial accounts such as debt-to-income ratios.
The full set of quarterly sector accounts is published for euro area / EU aggregates. Quarterly sector accounts data are also available for most of the European Economic Area (EEA) Member States in the Eurostat database and a subset of quarterly key indicators is published around 102 days after each quarter at quarterly data and annual data. The EEA members whose GDP is below 1% of the EU total do not have to transmit the quarterly accounts of households to Eurostat.
General information on European sector accounts compilation is given in the metadata file.
For detailed data and methodology, please see Eurostat's website and ECB's website.
- The European Union (EU) consists of 27 Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden plus the EU institutions.
- The euro area (EA-20) consists of 20 Member States: Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland, plus the European Central Bank, the European Stability Mechanism and the European Financial Stability Facility. From 1 January 2023, the euro area (EA-20) also includes Croatia. The aggregate data series presented in this article refer to EA-20.
Source data for tables and graphs
Notes
- ↑ Seasonal adjustment has been performed using the Tramo-Seats method. The seasonally adjusted series are built up indirectly as the sum of seasonally adjusted components.