Index of Production, UK: December 2022

• Monthly production output rose by 0.3% between November and December 2022 and is 1.4% below February 2020; this was the last month of "normal" trading conditions before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

• The monthly increase in output resulted from growth in two of the four production sectors, with electricity and gas rising by 5.2% and water supply and sewerage by 0.7%; this was partially offset by mining and quarrying, which fell by 4.6%.

• Monthly manufacturing output remained unchanged, at 0.0%, and saw 7 of its 13 sub-sectors negatively contributing to growth during December 2022; most notably, the manufacture of food products, beverages and tobacco contributed negative 0.12 percentage points to the Index of Production (IoP) (with growth falling by 1.0%); this was offset by a positive contribution of 0.13 percentage points (with growth rising by 2.0%) from manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations.

• Output remained below the February 2020 pre-coronavirus pandemic levels in the mining and quarrying (17.2% below) and manufacturing (2.3% below) sectors; in contrast, water supply and sewerage and electricity and gas were above the February 2020 level, at 11.0% and 5.3%, respectively.

• Production output for Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2022 declined by 0.2% compared with Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2022, with falls in mining and quarrying (1.6%) and electricity and gas (1.3%), partially offset by a rise in water supply and sewerage (0.7%); in contrast, manufacturing output remained unchanged at 0.0%.

• Further analysis of the effect on our monthly IoP estimate is available in our Gross domestic product (GDP) monthly estimate, UK: December 2022 bulletin, published 10 February 2023.

The Index of Production (IoP) uses data from a variety of sources. It is calculated by taking turnover and removing the impact of price changes, or by using direct volume estimates.

Most of these data are collected as "turnover values" through the Monthly Business Survey (MBS). In addition, direct volume series are collected by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and the International Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) for steel industries.

From January 2018, Value Added Tax (VAT) data have also been included across 64 production industries for small and medium-sized businesses. For more information, see our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology article.

A comprehensive list of the IoP source data can be found in our Gross domestic product (GDP) data sources catalogue (XLS, 1.9MB).

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our UK Index of Production Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

Reasons for revisions to non-seasonally adjusted data in this release

In this release, revisions are seen back to January 2021 for non-seasonally adjusted data. This is an additional revision outside the normal period and is because of a minor processing error. This only affects detailed, non-seasonally, adjusted data for a small number of industries in our time series and does not affect the seasonally adjusted figures.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Monthly Business Survey (MBS) is fully online. Business owners can log on from any location and submit their data at an appropriate time. Most other data in the IoP come from the DESNZ, and therefore will be less affected than the survey data.

Our latest data and analysis on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the UK economy and population are available on our Coronavirus (COVID-19) data and analysis web page. This is the hub for all special coronavirus-related publications, including the fortnightly Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS).

Economic statistics governance after Brexit

Following the UK's exit from the EU, new governance arrangements are being put in place. These will support the adoption and implementation of high-quality standards for UK economic statistics. These governance arrangements will promote international comparability and add to the credibility and independence of the UK's statistical system.

At the centre of this new governance framework, there will be the new National Statistician's Committee for Advice on Standards for Economic Statistics (NSCASE). NSCASE will support the UK by ensuring its processes for influencing and adopting international statistical standards are world leading. The advice that NSCASE provides to the National Statistician will span the full range of domains in economic statistics, including:

• the national accounts
• fiscal statistics
• prices
• trade and the balance of payments
• labour market statistics

You can access further information on the NSCASE on the UK Statistics Authority's website.