The Monthly Index Of Services
Movements in GVA for service industries
The monthly Index of Services (IoS) shows the monthly movements in gross value added for the service industries. Service industries overall account for around 76 per cent of UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and includes private sector and government services. The IoS First Release brings together in one place all monthly information on services.
Gross value added (GVA) is an important element in measuring the economy. GVA for the service industries is the difference between the value of a service provided (output), and the value of the goods and services used up in providing that service (intermediate consumption). The IoS shows how this difference in value changes from month to month.
The index is estimated using the same data sources and National Accounts methodology as the quarterly estimate of service industries' gross value added within the well established output measure of Gross Domestic Product (GDP(O)).
The IoS, between December 2000 and February 2007, was published as an experimental series. The main reason for the experimental label was that a large scale development programme to improve the short-term measurement of the service sector was launched at the same time as the launch of the IoS. The IoS was published to inform users of progress made and to seek feedback on the indicators and the planned work programme.
The IoS, in March 2007, was reclassified from experimental to National Statistic status. This was in response to the significant methodological improvements made to the IoS as part of the IoS Development programme. This decision was made following a robust evaluation programme conducted by ONS methodological experts in index numbers, prices and deflation and sample design and estimation. Further details can be found in the IOS Evaluation report.
The IoS development programme continues, and further improvements will be made to the data sources and methods used to measure the IoS and the service sector element of GDP(O). As the improvement of each industry is implemented, a report of the findings is published in the Future Improvements section within the IoS Methodology page.
Produced by the Office for National Statistics
To access the data, and more information on their limitations, see the Index of Services. This includes information on the top level IoS and indices for five broad industry categories.
See Index of Services Methodology for detailed documentation of: - data sources and methods for explanations of the conceptual basis; - how the index is constructed, what data sources are used and how the components are weighted together; - the statistical processes that are applied to the data, why they are used and what they do; - how the data are quality assured and how and when adjustments are applied; and - how the IoS fits into the National Accounts framework and details of the development programme to improve the quality of the sources and methods.
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Index of Services