 From bricks to clicks: an assessment of euro area digital investmentMalin Andersson, Sara Colombo, Valerie Jarvis and Richard Morris Economic Bulletin Boxes, 2026, vol. 2 Abstract: This box provides a first assessment of digital investment trends in the euro area by using proxies derived from annual national accounts and monthly production data. As there is no standardised measurement framework, our definition of digital investment covers investment in buildings and structures in the information and communication sector, investment in ICT equipment and computer software and databases in the business economy, and investment in research and development in the information and communication sector. The proxy shows that there has been a gradual increase in digital investment, likely driven most recently by the surge in global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and cloud services. Looking ahead, the share of digital investment in overall business investment is expected to continue growing, supported, among other factors, by venture capital, Next Generation EU funding and the EU AI Continent Action Plan. However, survey results point to concerns that insufficient energy supply and overregulation could hamper further growth. JEL Classification: E22, E66, G31 Keywords: business investment; euro area; intangible capital (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbbox:2026:0002:5 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Economic Bulletin Boxes from European Central Bank 60640 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.