Reconciliation with the official stock of fixed assets from the INE

Abstract

The stock of non-financial assets (dwellings, commercial real estate, infrastructure, etc.) is normally estimated by accumulating investment flows, net of depreciation. In this paper we explore the differences between our estimates for Spain from the recently published series of the Spanish Statistical office (INE). These differences are mostly tied to different assumptions on investment flows, asset life cycle, and the depreciation profile. However, we do note that better data, especially on housing ownership, could substantially improve all estimates.