Northern Ireland Annual Business Inquiry Statistics 2015

Date published: 2 December 2016

Growth in aGVA and turnover between 2014 and 2015

The key findings include:

• Total aGVA was estimated to be worth £20.1 billion at basic prices in 2015. This is the first time that aGVA has exceeded £20 billion as measured by the Annual Business Inquiry. This represented a rise of 1.8% (£350 million) compared to 2014.
• Turnover for NI businesses increased by 0.7% between 2014 and 2015 to £66.7 billion, while the cost of purchases of goods, services and energy declined by 0.8% to £43.4 billion.

Growth driven by strong increases in the construction and Services sectors

• Following five consecutive years of decline between 2008 and 2013, the Construction sector showed growth in 2014 and this recovery continued into 2015. Turnover recorded a 9.3% increase year-on-year, growing from £5.5 billion to £6.0 billion. Purchases increased by 5.6% over the year, while aGVA increased by 17.3%, from £1.8 billion in 2014 to £2.2 billion in 2015.
• aGVA in the NI Non-financial services sector increased by 3.5% (£251 million) to £7.3 billion in 2015. Key contributors to this increase include:

1. Other service activities, including education, human health, entertainment and recreation (+£85m or 8.8%)
2. Administrative and support service activities (+£51m or 4.6%)
3. Accommodation and food service activities (+£45m or 6.0%)

Decline or flat growth in Distribution and Production sectors

• The Distribution industries consist of companies engaged in Wholesale and retail trade and cover the entire Northern Ireland wholesale and retail sector. aGVA in the Distribution industries recorded a decline of 4.7% between 2014 and 2015. There was also a decline in both turnover (2.1%) and purchases (1.9%). A number of factors contributed to this decline, including falling oil and dairy prices during 2015.
• The production sector recorded marginal growth between 2014 and 2015, with a 0.3% increase in aGVA.