Most components of private fixed investment in equipment are estimated using a commodity flow method, which is based on shipments of domestic manufacturers plus imports, less exports. For aircraft, the measure of domestic shipments has been based on the value of complete aircraft from the Census Bureau’s Current Industrial Report (CIR) program. The Census Bureau is terminating the CIR program. The final CIR data, which are available through the month of July, were released on September 9, 2011.
As a result, beginning with the third quarter of 2011, BEA’s current quarterly estimates of private fixed investment in aircraft will use data from the Census Bureau’s Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (M3) on nondefense aircraft shipments as the indicator for civilian aircraft shipments. The M3 series on nondefense aircraft shipments includes all manufacturing receipts other than for products designed for military applications. The advantage of the CIR series was that it identified complete aircraft separately, which is the measure relevant for the fixed investment estimates.
The annual commodity-flow estimates of aircraft investment will continue to be based on product-class shipments from the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Manufactures. More information about the sources and methods used in deriving BEA’s estimates of private fixed investment can be found in Chapter 6: Private Fixed Investment of the NIPA Handbook of Concepts and Methods.