Business Services Help Sector Growth Of 3.4%

The index of services published by the ONS suggests that the service sector grew by 3.4% in July 2014 compared with july 2013. All the major components of the services index experienced growth in the month compared with the same month a year ago.

Business services made the largest contribution with an increase of 1.9% and distribution,hotels and restaurants contributed 0.7%.

The monthly comparison between June and July 2014 shows that output increased by 0.3% for the fourth consecutive month. The quarterly comparison shows that between Q1 and Q2 there was 1.1% growth, an upward revision of 0.1% from the second estimate of GDP to be consistent with the Quarterly National Accounts.

Services Index Increase By 3.1%

The index of services published by the ONS increased by 3.1% in March 2014 compared with March last year. All four of the main components reported an increase on the same month a year ago. Business services and finance made the biggest contribution to the growth with an increase of 1.6%, distribution, hotels and restaurants also made a contribution to growth of 0.9%.

Between February and March 2014 there was estimated growth of 0.4% after growth of 0.2% between January and February. The quarterly comparison shows that output increased by 0.9% in Q1 compared with Q4 2013, unchanged from the estimate published in the preliminary estimate of GDP and consistent with the second estimate.

Services Index Increase Of 2.7% In February

All four of the main components of the index of services increased in February 2014 and it resulted in an increase of 2.7% in the total index in February.

The largest effects came from business services and finance with an increase of 1.4% to the total and distribution, hotels and restaurants which contributed 0.7% to total growth. The transport, storage and communication sector added and increase of 0.09% and government and other services 0.44%.

The monthly comparison of figures in the index of services shows that output in services increased by 0.2% between January and February 2014.

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.

Services Index Increases By 3.2%

The Index of Services produced by the ONS increased by 3.2% on the annual comparison in December 2013. All four of the main components increased in the most recent month on the monthly comparison.

Business services and finance made the biggest contribution with an increase of 1.4%. Distribution, hotels and restaurants also made a significant contribution with an increase of 1%.

The index estimates that output increased by 0.2% between November and December of 2013 following an increase of 0.5% between October and November 2013.

Over the quarter Q4 2013 compared with Q3 the index reported an increase of 0.8%. The IOS is estimated to have increased by 1.9% in 2013 compared with 2012.

Services Up 2.2%

The index of services published by the ONS shows that there was annual growth in services of 2.2% in February 2013. All components of the index reported growth. The biggest growth was in distribution, hotels and restaurants and business services and finance both contributing 0.8% to the growth of the sector.

Slight Increase In Services Output

The seasonally adjusted index of services published by the ONS is estimated to have increased by 0.6% in December 2012 compared with December 2011. Three of the four service sector index components increased during the period, most recent month compared with the same month a year ago. The services sector index number for December was 103.7. The index of services has not follwed the line of the double dip recession but has enjoyed a long period of growth and is above its pre-recession peak. The weakness in the economy is coming from other sectors.

The most resilient of the components making up the service sector index has been government and other services. It is now above its pre-recession peak after a period of decline. Not all components have fared so well. Business services and finance are slightly below the pre-recession peak as are distribution, hotels and restaurants and transport, storage and communication. It is to be expected that government services would do well during a recession as services relating to unemployment, careers and skills are in greater demand as automatic fiscal stabilisers come into effect.

The largest contributions to the overall increase came from distribution, hotels and restaurants with a 2% increase and government and other services which increased by 1%. Transport storage and communication increased by 0.5% but business services and finance decreased by 0.3%.

Looking at the quarterly comparison, between Q3 and Q4 services output decreased by 0.1%. The estimate from the GDP preliminary estimate for Q4 of no difference was slightly up on the actual figure. The estimate published is consistent with the second estimate of GDP. When comparing this quarter with the same three months in 2011 output increased 1.2%. The main contributors to the decrease came from government and other services with a decrease of 0.8% and distribution hotels and restaurants with a decrease of 0.5%. Upward pressure came from transport, storage and communication with an increase of 1.2% and business services and finance with an increase of 0.2%. The third quarter figures were helped by the Olympics and Paralympics.

The monthly comparison for December shows that service sector output decreased by 0.4% between November and December 2012 but increased by 0.6% when compared with December 2011. Transport, storage and communication increased by 0.5% during the month but the other three components decreased including a fall of 0.8% in business services and finance.

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 Output Up 2%

The index of services for October 2012 compared with October 2011 was estimated to have increased by 2% according to a statistical bulletin from the ONS. All 4 components increased output: business services and finance by 2.8%, government and other services by 1.8%, transport, storage and communication by 2% and distribution, hotels and restaurants by 0.6%.

On the monthly comparison service sector output was said to have increased by 0.1% between September and October 2012. Business services and finance and transport, storage and communication both grew over the month by 0.8% and 1.1% respectively. Government and other services and distribution, hotels and restaurants both decreased by 0.5% and 1.3% respectively offsetting the increases.

Estimated 1% Growth In GDP In Q3

GDP was estimated to have increased by 1% in the third quarter of the year compared with the previous quarter according to a statistical bulletin from the ONS. Production increased by 1.1%, construction decreased by 2.5% and services increased by 1.3%. Manufacturing contributed the most to the increase in production and agriculture increased by 2.2%. In the services sector distribution, hotels and restaurants grew by 1.6% as did government and other services, business services and finance contributed 1% growth and transport, storage and communiaction 0.8%.

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%.

Business Services Drive Up Services Index

The index of services (seasonally adjusted) increased by 1.2% in September 2011 compared with a year earlier. Business services and finance increased by 1.5% ands accounted for 38% of services, government and other services increased by 1.6% and accounted for 29%, distribution, hotels and restaurants which accounts for 18% remained unchanged and transport, storage and communication increased by 1.5% and accounted for the other 15% of services.

Services Growth In October

The index of services for October 2010 published recently by the ONS shows that the service industries grew by 1.9% on October 2009. The main contributor to the increase was the business and services component's increase of 2.6%. Within the business component the largest contributions came from the 5.2% increase in computer services and the 3.8% increase in real estate activities.

Four of the five components showed an increase and hotels and restaurants also increased by 2.6%. Distribution services and Government services both increased by 1.7%. Transport, storage and communication remained unchanged in October.

The index for the last three months was up 2.3% on a year earlier and 0.6% up on the last three months but down 0.4% on September 2010.

Business Services Lead Increase In Services Index

The index of services from ONS rose by 2.5% in September 2010 compared with September 2009. There were increases in all five components. Business services and finance grew by 3.4%, distribution by 1.8%, hotels and restaurants by 4.9%, transport, storage and communication by 1.1% and government and other services by 1.8%.

Annual Business Survey 2009

Provisional results for the annual business inquiry now called the annual business survey show decreases in all four main industry groups: production, construction, distribution and services in turnover, purchases and gross value added (GVA) at basic prices. Agriculture also reported decreases in turnover, purchases and GVA at basic prices.

Production decreased 8.1% in turnover, 8.9% in purchases and 10.2% in GVA. Within the production group mining and quarrying fell by 24.6% in turnover and 37.5% in GVA. Production did report some increases most notably in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning with 8.4% in turnover and 32.1% in GVA. Manufacturing reported decreases of 9.1% in turnover, 10.9% in purchases and 11.2% in GVA. The construction industries reported the largest percentage falls with -13.7% in turnover, -15.1% in purchases and -20.3% in GVA.

Distribution reported the largest decreases in money terms with a decrease of £60bn in turnover (-4.9%), £58bn (-5.5%) in purchases and £17bn (-4.6%) in GVA. While the financial differences were the largest the percentage changes were not. Only services had a smaller percentage change. The only increases in the distribution industries was in retail (except motor vehicles and motorcycles) increasing turnover by 0.3% and GVA by 1.8%.

Services Rise By 2.7%

The ONS index of services for August 2010 showed an increase 2.7% up on August 2009. Distribution showed the biggest increase of the five components that make up the services index with a rise of 5.5%. Business services and finance came next with an increase of 3.4%. Hotels abd restaurants increased by 1.9%, Government and other sevives by 1.3% and transport, storage and communication by 0.4%.

Distribution showed the biggest rise over the last three months but over the last month it was business services and finance with 1.4% that made the biggest increase with distribution falling by 0.7%. The main contributor to the 5.5% rise in the distribution component was a 7.6% increase in the wholesale sector. Computer services contributed a 10% rise to the business services and finance increase of 3.4%. Health and social work also contributed a 3.4% rise.

Distribution Drives The Increase In Services

The ONS index of services rose 1.2% in July 2010 compared with July 2009. The main contributor to the change was the distribution sector which increased by 4.7% with wholesale increasing by 6.5% and retail by 3.9%.

Investment In Manufacturing Increases Index

Business investment rose by 0.7% to £29.2bn in the second quarter of 2010 compared with the first quarter. It was also 1.9% higher than the same quarter in 2009. Investment in manufacturing increased by 10.4% to £2.7bn but compared with Q2 2009 it has fallen by 4.9%.

Non-manufacturing investment in the private sector increased by 2.4% compared with the same quarter last year. Distribution services accounted for a significant amount of the change increasing by 13.5% on Q2 2009 to £4.1bn and construction which increased by 12.9% to £585m. Other services accounted for £16.6bn of investment but fell by 1.4%.

Investment in computer software was £1,418m down from £1,663m and hardware £1,348m down from £1,637m in Q1. Business investment in softwae and hardware equals 9.7% of all business investment with 5% on software and 4.8% on hardware.

Services Index Up by 1.4%

The ONS Index of Services increased by 1.4% in June 2010 compared with June 2009. Four of the five components increased over the year. Distribution increased by 4.2%, business services and finance by 1.7%, hotels and restaurants by 0.9% and government and other services by 0.7%. The only component to show a decrease was transport, storage and communication with -1.7%. It was a very similar picture over the quarter the only difference being hotels and restaurants which remained unchanged.

Services Output 2.1% Up On Year

The Index of Services, published by the ONS, rose 2.1% over the year from May 2009 to 102.5 in May 2010 (seasonally-adjusted). All five components increased in the most recent month on a year earlier. The biggest rise was in business services and finance which rose 2.5%. It rose 1% over the month.

Distribution output increased by 4.5% notably motor trades which rose by 12.5% and retail which rose by 4.1%. Government and other services increased by 1% within which the greatest contribution was from health and social work which contributed 2.6% in output and 0.9 to the overall 1%.