Northern Ireland Economic Output Statistics

Date published: 19 March 2020

Commentary

• Output in the services sector saw no change (0 per cent) in real terms over the fourth quarter of 2019. Production sector output increased in real terms (0.6 per cent) over the quarter.

Services Sector Output

• Whilst there was no quarterly change in NI services output there were increases and decreases at sector level. Both the Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; accommodation and food service (0.6 per cent) and Business services and finance (0.5 per cent) sectors saw decreases. These decreases were offset by increases in the Transport, storage, information and communications (0.8 per cent) and the Other services (0.6 per cent) sectors.

• The annual decrease in NI services output has been driven by decreases in the Transport, storage, information and communications (1.6 per cent) and the Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; accommodation and food service (0.5 per cent) sectors. Both the Other services (2.9 per cent) and the Business services and finance (0.8 per cent) sectors saw increases.

• When the most recent four quarters are compared to the previous four quarters, the NI and UK services sectors showed annualised growth, of 0.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively.

Production Sector Output

• Production output in NI increased over the fourth quarter by 0.6 per cent and over the year by 1.7 per cent. The UK production sector reported decreases over the quarter (0.8 per cent) and over the year (2 per cent).

• The change in the IOP is caused by quarterly increases in Manufacturing (0.7 per cent); Water supply, sewerage and waste management (Inc. recycling) (3.1 per cent); Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (0.3 per cent) and offset by a decrease in Mining and quarrying (5 per cent). The increase in the Manufacturing sector itself contained quarterly subsector increases in the indices for Manufacture of chemical and pharmaceutical products (8.8 per cent); Food products, beverages and tobacco (2.3 per cent) and Total other manufacturing (0.6 per cent).

• Looking at the longer term trend, when the most recent four quarters are compared to the previous four quarters, output in the NI production sector grew by 1.8 per cent, with the whole of the UK reporting a decrease of 1.3 per cent.

Upcoming Releases

• The NI Composite Economic Index and Quarterly Construction Enquiry are scheduled for publication on 9 April 2020.

• The next Labour Market Report will be published on 21 April 2020.

• The Index of Production and Index of Services reports for Quarter 1 2020 will be published on 18 June 2020.