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Information on capital spending provides a useful indication of market conditions both in the economy at large and in particular industries. Since such expenditures account for a large and relatively variable proportion of gross domestic expenditures, the size and content of the investment program provides significant information about demands that have been placed upon the productive capacities of the economy during the period covered by the survey. In addition, information on the relative size of the capital expenditures program planned, both in total and for individual industries, gives an indication of the views management hold on future market demands in relation to present productive capacity.

The following sections of the "Data quality, concepts and methodology" will provide the information necessary to use the statistical tables to their full potential. The "Data quality, concepts and methodology — Concepts" section explains the basic definitions used during data collection and publication, the target survey units and the classifications used to categorize industry and geographic location. The concepts section also contains information concerning the comparability of the capital expenditures series with other data sources.

The "Data quality, concepts and methodology — Sources" section identifies the different types of questionnaires used to survey data, the sources for non-surveyed data and the data collection arrangements used during the collection process. "Data quality, concepts and methodology — Quality assurance" section delineates the steps taken to insure data quality during, and after, the collection process.

The "Data quality, concepts and methodology — Methodology" section encompasses the steps taken and the sources used to determine the survey frame and the method used to develop a stratified sample from that frame. In addition, the methodology section deals with the processes of imputation and estimation for non-respondents within the sample for the non-surveyed portion of the frame. The final two sections, "Data quality, concepts and methodology — Users and uses" and "Data quality, concepts and methodology — Expenditure series chronology", provide information related to the uses of the data and the availability of historical capital expenditures data, respectively.