The Central Statistics Office has today (08 April 2025) introduced two new indicators which offer greater insights into services and domestic industrial activity in Ireland. The new indicators are a Modified Monthly Services Index and a Domestic Industrial Production Index.
These developments are the result of engagement with stakeholders, who highlighted the value of having additional insights on services and domestic industrial production, as well as the traditional and modern sectors within both the CSO’s current Monthly Services Index (MSI) and Industrial Production and Turnover (IPT) releases. In response, the CSO developed new products to help users better understand the domestic economy in Ireland.
Commenting on the creation and launch of these two new indicators, Dr Nele van der Wielen, Acting Senior Statistician in the Enterprise Division, said: “We are pleased to introduce these new indicators, reflecting the CSO’s commitment to listening to user feedback and enhancing the insights we provide.
The new Domestic Industrial Production Index will be published quarterly as part of the CSO’s Frontier Series. This new statistical release will complement the data produced in our monthly Industrial Production and Turnover (IPT) series, and allow for ongoing engagement and refinement of this new quarterly release.
The new Modified Monthly Services Index (Modified MSI) will form part of our standard Monthly Services Index release series. These developments strengthen the CSO’s ability to deliver independent, meaningful analysis of Ireland’s economy."
The Modified MSI has been introduced to provide a clearer view of Ireland’s services economy by excluding the Information & Communication (ICT) sector, which has a significant impact on the overall index due to its scale.
Using the same methodology as the current MSI series, the Modified MSI applies Gross Value Added (GVA) base weights updated monthly from turnover data but omits the ICT sector from calculations. This modification ensures a more balanced representation of service sector trends outside of ICT. The Modified MSI indicators will be incorporated into our standard monthly MSI series of releases in a dedicated new section.
The CSO welcomes feedback on this initiative from users of this release. Please contact Statistician Tommy Allen by email to Tommy.Allen@cso.ie with any comments on our new monthly set of MSI indicators.
Please note the new Modified Monthly Services Index will be published in a dedicated section in the standard Monthly Services Index release.
The new Domestic Industrial Production Index will be published quarterly to complement the standard Industrial Production and Turnover release.
| Colin Cotter | (+353) 21 453 5770 |
|---|---|
| Tommy Allen | (+353) 21 453 5064 |
| Dr Nele van der Wielen | (+353) 21 453 5379 |
| enterprise_stats@cso.ie | |
| pressoffice@cso.ie |
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New Domestic Industrial Production Release
The current Industrial Production and Turnover (IPT) release series monitors the volume of production and value of turnover of industrial local units. Since 2015, contract manufacturing and outsourcing have grown significantly within the Irish industrial economy, introducing high levels of short-term volatility into the IPT indices. Stakeholders have sought additional indicators that provide insights into the volume and value of domestic manufacturing.
In response, the CSO has developed a Domestic Production Index, which will be published as a separate release each quarter, to better capture domestic manufacturing activity within Ireland. This new index incorporates updated survey data from 2021 and applies domestic weights derived from a proportion of total production weights, based directly on enterprise responses. This methodological shift enhances the accuracy of the index, ensuring it provides a clearer and more reliable measure of Ireland’s industrial economy. It will be published as a CSO Frontier Series release, which means care must be taken when interpreting these results as methodologies may change and data sources may develop further as the series develops.
As this is a Frontier product, the CSO welcomes feedback on this initiative from users of this release. Please contact Statistician Colin Cotter by email to Colin.Cotter@cso.ie with any comments on our new Domestic Industrial Production release.