Index of Services, UK: September 2023

• We estimate that monthly services output increased by 0.2% in September 2023; this follows an increase of 0.3% in August 2023 (downwardly revised by 0.1 percentage points). 

• The Index of Services (IoS) saw monthly increases in 8 of the 14 sectors in September 2023; the largest positive contributing sectors to the monthly growth in September 2023 were ”human health” (1.0%) and ”professional, scientific and technical activities” (0.8%).

• The monthly September 2023 rise was partially offset by falls in ”wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles” and “real estate activities”, which saw decreases of 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively. 

• Looking at the longer-term, we estimate that quarterly services output growth in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2023 fell by 0.1% when compared with Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2023; this follows no growth (0.0%) in Quarter 2 2023.

• The main negative contributing sectors over Quarter 3 2023 were ”real estate activities” and ”transportation and storage”, which fell by 0.4% and 1.2%, respectively; these declines were partially offset by ”professional, scientific and technical activities”, which grew by 0.6%.

• For further and detailed analysis of the effect on our monthly IoS estimate, please see our GDP monthly estimate, UK: September 2023 bulletin published on 10 November 2023. 

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

Data sources and collection     

The Index of Services (IoS) is compiled using data from several different sources (share of overall economy based on latest gross value added (GVA) weights):     

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) Monthly Business Survey (34.1%)     
• ONS Retail Sales Inquiry (4.9%)     
• ONS Government Expenditure (14.8%)     
• ONS Households' Expenditure (11.5%)     
• ONS Finance Expenditure (5.7%)     
• ONS households and non–profit institutions serving households (1.9%) 
• Other (4.4%)    

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: October 2023 bulletin, published on 20 October 2023. 

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

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 our Index of Services Quality and Methodology Information (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 Index of Services   

In line with our National Accounts Revisions Policy, this release gives data for September 2023 for the first time with July and August 2023 also open for revision.  

Updates to monthly gross domestic product methods and data sources in Blue Book 2023 

A number of changes have been made to the methods and data sources used in compiling monthly GDP and output approach to measuring GDP estimates as part of Blue Book 2023. 

For further information on the updates, please see Section 10: Measuring the data in our GDP monthly estimate, UK: September 2023 bulletin.

Office for Statistics Regulation review of gross domestic product   

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) completed 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 covers the following:   

• processes and quality assurance in making revisions to GDP   
• potential improvements to early estimates of GDP enabled through enhanced access to data   
• communication of revisions to GDP, the story behind the most recent set of revisions, and uncertainty in early estimates of GDP