GDP, Wales: April to June 2019

Quarterly economic activity for Wales including the construction, production and services industrial sectors.

Hwn yw'r datganiad diweddaraf. Gweld datganiadau blaenorol

3 June 2020

This bulletin has been discontinued and this is not the latest analysis. The latest regional analysis for gross domestic product (GDP) is published in the GDP, UK regions and countries bulletin. The latest data are available in the Quarterly country and regional GDP dataset.

Cyswllt:
Email Ed Ryall

Dyddiad y datganiad:
7 February 2020

Cyhoeddiad nesaf:
To be announced

2. GDP growth in Wales was 0.4% in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019

Gross domestic product (GDP) in Wales had growth of 0.4% in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019, following negative growth of 0.6% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2019. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, GDP grew by 0.7%.

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3. Half of the sectors showed growth in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019

In Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019, the agriculture and services sectors grew by 3.8% and 2.0% respectively, while the construction and production sectors fell by 6.7% and 3.0% respectively.

The agriculture and services sectors saw steady growth since 2017, while construction has fallen since Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2018. The production sector has steadily fallen since late 2017.

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4. Transportation and storage contributed the most to growth in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019

Transportation and storage grew by 78.6% and made the highest contribution to growth in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019, at 2.25 percentage points. Manufacturing and human health and social work fell by 4.3% and 3.3% respectively. These industries made the largest negative contribution in this region, at negative 0.72 and negative 0.37 percentage points respectively. Of the main industrial sectors, the services sector was the main driver of gross domestic product (GDP) within Wales in Quarter 2 2019, at 1.43 percentage points.

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5. GDP, UK regions and countries data

Quarterly country and regional GDP
Dataset | Released 07 February 2020
Quarterly economic activity within Wales and the nine English regions (North East, North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East, South West).

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6. Glossary

GDP

Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of goods and services produced in the UK. It estimates the size of and growth in the economy.

Production

Production is the process of combining various materials or other inputs in order to generate a product for consumption. It includes output in the manufacturing (the largest component of production), mining and quarrying, energy supply, and water supply and waste management industries.

Services

Services are activities that people or businesses provide for a consumer or other businesses. The main components of the service industries are: wholesale and retail; hotels and restaurants; transport, storage and communication; business services and finance; and government and other services.

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7. Measuring the data

The main data for these estimates are turnover data from approximately 1.9 million Value Added Tax (VAT) returns. Information from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) on workplace employment allows us to apportion the VAT turnover for each business based on its employment share within a region. The quality assurance of administrative data (QAAD) report for VAT turnover data is available.

Other volume measure data are used where appropriate or where VAT data have insufficient coverage. A full list of other data sources is included in the methodology article.

A detailed analysis of these new data was published in the Economic Review on 21 October 2019.

Additional analysis has allowed us to now publish a longer back series. This includes data from Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2012. This publication includes a consistent time series of growth rates and indices back to 2012; these data are consistent with the Blue Book 2019-consistent regional accounts estimates published in December 2019. We use a statistical algorithm to automatically align our datasets, to ensure consistency.

We welcome feedback and comments on this publication, including on presentation and further development of other data sources.

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8. Strengths and limitations

These data are designated as Experimental Statistics. These are statistics that are in the testing phase. We will continue to develop these statistics and seek users’ views on their uses and needs for these data.

While the data sources and methods used in both our regional and national estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) are broadly similar, there are some clear differences. For example, in the extent to which Value Added Tax (VAT) data are used in the compliation of these estimates.

These estimates aim to produce the best estimates at a subnational level. However, the sum of the UK regions may not equal the national total, reflecting that there are some differences in data sources and methods. We have constrained our regional GDP estimates in such a way that minimises the changes to the region by industry quarterly growth rates using automated statistical methods. While the overall impact of this constraining on the regional estimates is small, we will continue to examine the impact of this method and consider options to determine which one is best suited to these data in advance of applying to be assessed as National Statistics.

Following the announcement by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) in March 2019, Construction Output Price Indices (OPIs), UK; Construction output in Great Britain; and construction new orders were re-designated as National Statistics. It was noted, however, that the subnational and subsector breakdowns were excluded from consideration because of concerns around the path of the subnational estimates of construction output. We have worked closely with the Construction Statistics Steering Group and Consultative Committee on Construction Industry Statistics (CCCIS) on improving these estimates. While these users have acknowledged the improvements in the modelling of these estimates, there is ongoing development work to improve these lower-level estimates as we ultimately look to regain National Statistic status in due course. Any developments in this area will in turn lead to improved accuracy in the regional GDP estimates.

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Manylion cyswllt ar gyfer y Bwletin ystadegol

Ed Ryall
ed.ryall@ons.gov.uk
Ffôn: +44 (0)1633 456752