Index Of Production UK - March 2023

12th May 2023

Monthly production output is estimated to have risen by 0.7% in March 2023, the strongest monthly growth to the Index of Production (IoP) since May 2021 (1.4%); this follows falls of 0.1% and 0.3% in February 2023 and January 2023, respectively; both of these months see small upward revisions of 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively.

Looking at the longer-term profile, quarterly production output for Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2023 rose by 0.1%. This compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2022, and is the first positive quarterly growth in IoP since Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2021; growth came primarily from manufacturing (0.5%), partially offset by a fall in mining and quarrying (5.0%).

The monthly increase in output in March 2023 resulted from rises in three of the four production sectors, with manufacturing the main contributor to the monthly rise (0.7%) with smaller contributions from water supply and sewerage (1.7%) and, electricity and gas (1.1%); this was partially offset by mining and quarrying, which fell by 1.4%.
Monthly manufacturing output increased by 0.7% and saw 7 of its 13 sub-sectors positively contributing to growth during March 2023; most notably, following falls in previous months, the manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products (4.0%), and the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products (3.3%), contributed 0.24 and 0.17 percentage points respectively to the IoP March 2023 monthly growth.

Monthly production output was 0.4% above February 2020, the last month of "normal" trading conditions before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; of the main production sectors, water supply and sewerage, electricity and gas, and manufacturing were above their February 2020 levels, by 10.8%, 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively; in contrast, mining and quarrying was 20.0% below its February 2020 level.

Read the full report HERE