Note: The "other services" item is not represented; it has increased from 12% of investment excluding construction in 1980 to 18% since 2007. Construction accounted for between 44% and 48% of total investment from 1990 to 2016, and more before 1990. "Computer, electronic and optical products" accounted for 20% of investment in "equipment" in 1980 and 32% in 2016.
Without taking account of cyclical fluctuations, the asset class breakdown of NFCs' GFCF shows that the share of construction assets (dwellings and other buildings and structures) was stable, with a decreasing share of machinery and equipment, and an increasing share, from 20% to 34%, of assets covered by intellectual property rights (R&D, software and databases, entertainment, literary or artistic originals, see Chart 3). The latter asset class depreciates faster than capital goods.
As regards "machinery and equipment”, the depreciation rate was stable over time at between 15% and 16%. As regards "intellectual property rights", the depreciation rate was much higher, and rose slightly, from 28% up to the end of the 1990s to almost 30% in 2016 (Chart 4). These depreciation rates were higher than the corresponding ones in US national accounts, hence the lower level of Consumption of Fixed Capital in the United States than in France.