Index of Services, UK: July 2023

• Monthly services output is estimated to have decreased by 0.5% in July 2023; this follows an unrevised growth of 0.2% in June 2023.

• The Index of Services (IoS) saw monthly decreases in 9 of the 14 sectors; the largest negative contributing sector to the monthly fall in July 2023 was "information and communication" which fell by 2.1%.

• "Human health and social work activities" fell by 2.1% and "education" by 1.1%, contributing to the monthly fall, with both sectors being affected by industrial action in July 2023, but it is not possible to quantify to what extent this affected data; these falls were partially offset by a rise in "arts, entertainment and recreation" of 6.6%.

• Services output grew 0.1% for the three months to July 2023 compared with the three months to April 2023 with the largest positive contributions coming from "arts, entertainment and recreation" and "information and communication" which rose by 4.4% and 0.8% respectively; these were partially offset by falls in "real estate activities", "professional and scientific and technical activities" and "administrative and support service activities" which fell by 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.7% respectively.

All data related to the Index of Services are available on the Related data page.   

Data sources and collection

The Index of Services (IoS) is compiled using data from several different sources:   

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) Monthly Business Survey (44.4%)   

• ONS Retail Sales Inquiry (6.4%)   

• ONS Government Expenditure (20.1%)   

• ONS Households' Expenditure (15.3%)   

• ONS Finance Expenditure (7.8%)

• Other (5.9%)   

The Monthly Business Survey (MBS) data are published alongside this release in our MBS turnover of services industries dataset.   

Data relating to the retail industry are broadly comparable with our Retail sales, Great Britain: July 2023 bulletin, published on 18 August 2023.   

For further information on what is included within Other, please see our GDP(o) data sources catalogue dataset.   

The percentage of each data source is based on their gross value-added weight. Our GDP(o) methods and sources pages provide more information on the data that underpin these statistics; of particular note is the GDP(o) data sources catalogue.   

From February 2018, value added tax (VAT) data have also been included across 64 production industries for small- and medium-sized businesses. For more information, see our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology.   

Quality and methodology

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in the Index of Services QMI.   

Additional bank holiday in May 2023 for the Coronation of King Charles III

There was an additional bank holiday for the coronation of King Charles III on Monday 8 May 2023. While adjustments are made for regular calendar effects, there was no explicit adjustment for this event. However, the timing of the bank holiday indirectly affects the number of trading days, which could affect GDP estimates positively or negatively, depending on the sector. This should be taken into account when interpreting monthly, and three month movements over recent months since May 2023.

Revisions to IoS

In line with the National Accounts revision policy, this release gives data for July 2023 for the first time with no other periods open for revision.

 The next monthly IoS release will be published on 12 October 2023, and we are open for revisions for all periods. These revisions will be consistent with the quarterly national accounts release that will be published on 29 September 2023, and they will incorporate improved source data, updated seasonal adjustment parameters, and additional updated data as would happen in all quarterly national accounts releases. This includes new Value Added Tax (VAT) turnover data for Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2022 and Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2023.

Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) review of GDP

The OSR will shortly be completing a review of the practices around the preparation and release of information about revisions to estimates of GDP in our Impact of Blue Book 2023 article released on 1 September 2023. This will cover the processes and quality assurance in making revisions to GDP and potential improvements to early estimates of GDP enabled through enhanced access to data. It will also cover the communication of:

• revisions to GDP

• the story behind the most recent set of revisions in particular

• uncertainty in early estimates of GDP