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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today, 8 March 2019, released the Q4 2018 results of a rebased Production in Building and Construction Index. The index has now been calculated with reference to base year 2015=100, replacing the existing series which used 2010 as the base year.
The Irish construction industry experienced many changes between 2010 and 2015, as exhibited by the Volume index for all Building and Construction, where annual change ranged between -29% and +12% across this period. To reflect these changes in the sector, this rebase has introduced a number of minor amendments to the calculation methodology.
The growth in activity across the construction sector has led to increased employment in many companies, which in turn has led to movement across the employment size classes used in the index calculation. To best deal with this volatility when calculating the index, each company will be reclassified into their present employment size class on an annual basis from now on.
Both the size class and category weights have been updated to more accurately reflect the structure of the construction sector in 2015. The category weights comprise three broad categories – Residential Building, Non-Residential Building, and Civil. The size class weights are produced from the Building and Construction Inquiry and the Quarterly National Household Survey (now known as the Labour Force Survey) while the category weights are produced from the Building and Construction Inquiry and New Dwelling Completions data.
The index formulae have been reviewed and updated with some amendments where necessary. The seasonal adjustment models were also updated and implemented using Win X-13 software, as opposed to Win X-12 under the old base year.
In addition to the changes above, a full methodological review of the Production in Building and Construction Index is taking place in 2019, which may lead to further changes to the methodology of the index. The CSO will update users of the findings of this review and any changes to be implemented at a future date.
For further information in relation to the Production in Building and Construction Index rebase see the CSO’s statistical release Production in Building and Construction Index Quarter 4 2018 (Provisional) Quarter 3 2018 (Final).
For further information contact:
Paul Murphy (+353) 21 453 5201 or Deirdre O’Connor (+353) 21 453 5206 or email business_stats@cso.ie
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