Business Services Leading Growth In Sector

The ONS index of services grew by 3.2% (IOS=106.6) over the year to January with all of the main service sectors showing growth. Business services and finance contributed the most with an increase of 3.5% and 1.4% to total growth in the service sector with administrative and support services contributing 11.3 %, distribution, hotels and restaurants also contributed growth of 1%, government and other services grew 1.7% and 0.5% to total growth and transport, storage and communication grew by 2.5% and 0.3% to total growth.

The month on month estimates show that there was growth of 0.4% in output between December 2013 and January 2014. Quarterly figures show growth of 0.8% between Q4 2013 and Q3 2013.

Growth In The Services Sector

The latest services index from the ONS suggests that the services industry grew by 1.2% in November 2012 compared with November 2011. Three of the four main components were estimated to have grown. The biggest contributions to the growth were from government and other services with growth of 2% and distribution, hotels and restaurants with 2.7% growth. The monthly analysis says that between October and November there was no change in output.

Business services and finance grew by 0.6% over the year with the main contributions to the growth coming from administrative and support service activities with growth of 6.8% and other professional services up by 0.9%.

Services Growth 0.8%

The index of services for February 2012 from the ONS increased by 0.8% compared with February 2011. The largest contributions to the increase of the three sectors that increased were from business services and finance and government and other services both of which grew by 1.1%. On the monthly analysis the sector fell by 0.4%. The increase in business services and finance came mainly from professional services activities with an increase of 5.1% and administrative and support activities with 4% growth. Government and other services increase came mainly from increases in human health and social work activities which increased by 2.3%. The only one of the four major components of the index to see a decrease was distribution, hotels and restaurants which fell by 0.2%.