The recovery of investment during the current economic expansion has been heterogeneous across sectors and, within those, by segments of investment distribution. Manufacturing industry has shown a particularly positive trend, with the recovery covering all segments of the variable’s distribution in the sector. The upper segment, excluding the top investors, stands out, with a level of investment in 2017 about 25% above the average level in the period 2006-2009.

In general, across sectors, the upswing has been concentrated in the upper quantiles of sector distributions, but excluding top investors. The rebound has been less visible among companies in the lower segments. Moreover, the investment of companies already established in the market has shown more dynamism in the expansion period than the investment of young companies.

For more details see the Special Issue: “A microeconomic analysis of Portuguese firms’ investment from 2006 to 2017”, published in the Economic Bulletin of Banco de Portugal, December 2019.

Prepared by Manuel Coutinho Pereira. The analyses, opinions and findings expressed above represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of Banco de Portugal or the Eurosystem.

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