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ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

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Box 2-7: Explanations for the Recent Performance<br />

of Business Fixed Investment<br />

Business fixed investment comprises business spending on structures<br />

and equipment, as well as expenditures on intellectual property<br />

products such as software and research and development (R&D). While<br />

it constitutes only 12 percent of GDP, business fixed investment affects<br />

short-run growth disproportionately, as it accounts for about 20 percent<br />

of the quarterly volatility in real GDP growth. Moreover, business fixed<br />

investment is crucial to long-run growth because it supports future output<br />

(and income) and thereby consumption and is a major contributor<br />

to productivity growth. Business fixed investment has weakened since<br />

2014:Q4; for the first time since it began recovering after the recession,<br />

its four-quarter growth rate was negative in 2016:Q1 (Figure 2-xiii).<br />

Although oil-related investment has dragged on investment growth due<br />

to low oil prices, non-oil related investment growth has also slowed over<br />

the period. Finding the sources of this broad-based slowdown in investment<br />

spending is an ongoing discussion and empirical effort among<br />

economists. CEA has found that slow U.S. and global growth provides<br />

a partial quantitative explanation for the recent slowdown, while CEA’s<br />

analysis indicates that other factors such as business confidence, policy<br />

uncertainty, or financial conditions do not seem to explain the recent<br />

Figure 2-xiii<br />

Real Business Fixed Investment, 2007–2016<br />

Percent Change<br />

25<br />

20<br />

15<br />

10<br />

5<br />

0<br />

Quarterly Change,<br />

Annual Rate<br />

2016:Q3<br />

-5<br />

-10<br />

-15<br />

-20<br />

-25<br />

Four-Quarter<br />

Change<br />

Four-Quarter<br />

Change, Excluding<br />

Oil-Related<br />

Investment<br />

-30<br />

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016<br />

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis; CEA calculations.<br />

The Year in Review and the Years Ahead | 109

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