The CSO today published a new short term indicator of economic activity for the Services sector. This new series is being launched to address the need for better information on the services sector. It will complement existing short-term economic indicators for the industrial, construction and retail sectors.
The purpose of the Monthly Services Index is to measure changes in current price output in the non-financial traded services sector. It is the first step in the development of a Services Production Index which will measure volume change in the sector.
The series contains seasonally adjusted monthly indices from January 2009 for the following sectors: Transportation & Storage; Information & Communication; Wholesale, Retail & Repair of Motor Vehicles; Accommodation & Food Service Activities and Business Services.
The Monthly Services Index increased by 0.6% in March 2012 when compared with February 2012 and there was an annual increase of 4.0%.
Transportation and Storage (+9.6%), Accommodation and Food Service Activities (+2.7%), Wholesale and Retail Trade (+0.2%) and Business Services (+0.3%) showed month on month increases in March 2012. Information and Communication (-1.4%) and Other Services (-7.1%) showed monthly decreases.
Information and Communication (+13.6%), Transportation and Storage (+11.6%), Wholesale and Retail Trade (+4.7%) showed year on year increases in March 2012 when compared with March 2011. Business Services (-4.9%), Accommodation and Food Service Activities (-3.0%) and Other Services (-7.4%) showed decreases in the year.
Provisional quarterly data shows that Q1 2012 increased by 1.8% when compared with Q4 2011 and by 3.8% from Q1 2011.
The unadjusted and seasonally adjusted value indices from January 2009 are available on the CSO website www.cso.ie
For more information contact Patrick Foley on (021) 453 5012, Alan Finlay (021) 453 5211 or Sinéad Leyden (021) 453 5242
Central Statistics Office 25 May 2012
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