Index of Production, September 2015

9 Nov 2015 12:58 PM

Main points

• Total production output is estimated to have increased by 0.2% between Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2015 and Quarter 3 (July to Sep) 2015. Manufacturing, the largest component of production, is estimated to have decreased by 0.4% between these periods. However, when comparing September 2015 with August 2015, manufacturing is estimated to have increased by 0.8%, the largest monthly rise since April 2014. This followed a slightly smaller increase of 0.4% in August 2015 and a decrease of 0.7% in July 2015.
• The largest contribution to the quarterly growth came from mining & quarrying, which increased by 2.8%, the 4th consecutive quarterly increase since Quarter 3 (July to Sep) 2014.
• Total production output is estimated to have increased by 1.1% in September 2015 compared with September 2014. There were increases in 3 of the 4 main sectors, with mining & quarrying output being the largest contributor, increasing by 8.6%.
• Manufacturing output decreased by 0.6% in September 2015 compared with September 2014. The largest contribution to the decrease came from the manufacture of machinery & equipment not elsewhere classified, which decreased by 13.7%.
• Total production output in September 2015 is estimated to have decreased by 0.2% compared with August 2015. There were decreases in 2 of the 4 main sectors, with the largest contribution coming from mining & quarrying, which decreased by 4.9%.
• In the 3 months to September 2015, production and manufacturing were 9.3% and 6.4% respectively below their figures reached in the pre-downturn GDP peak in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2008.
• The preliminary estimate of GDP, published on 27 October 2015, contained a forecasted increase of 0.3% for production output in Quarter 3 (July to Sep) 2015. This release of data estimates that production output increased by 0.2% between Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2015 and Quarter 3 (July to Sep) 2015 and the impact on the previously published GDP estimate for Quarter 3 (July to Sep) 2015 is minimal.

Get all the tables for this publication in the data section of this publication.