Index of Production, UK: February 2023

• Monthly production output is estimated to have fallen by 0.2% in February 2023; this follows a downwardly revised fall of 0.5% (from a fall of 0.3%) in January 2023.

• The monthly decrease in output in February 2023 resulted from a decline in two of the four production sectors, with electricity and gas falling by 2.2%, and water supply and sewerage falling by 1.3%; this was partially offset by mining and quarrying, which rose by 3.0%.

• The decline in monthly output in the electricity and gas sector was led by gas production and supply falling by 3.6%; this was partly caused by unseasonal higher than average temperatures during February 2023 reducing demand.

• Monthly manufacturing output remained flat at 0.0% and saw 7 of its 13 sub-sectors negatively contributing to growth during February 2023; most notably, the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products contributed negative 0.11 percentage points to the Index of Production (IoP), with growth falling by 2.5%; this was offset by the largest positive contribution of 0.14 percentage points from manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products, with growth rising by 2.9%.

• Monthly production output remained 0.7% below February 2020, the last month of "normal" trading conditions before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; of the main production sectors, mining and quarrying, electricity and gas, and manufacturing were below their February 2020 levels, by 18.0%, 0.8% and 0.1% respectively; in contrast, water supply and sewerage, was above its February 2020 level, at 9.7%.

• Production output for the three months to February 2023 fell by 0.1% compared with the three months to November 2022, with a fall of 4.5% in mining and quarrying, partially offset by rises of 1.2% in water supply and sewerage, 0.7% in electricity and gas, and 0.1% in manufacturing.

• Further analysis of the effect on our monthly IoP estimate is available in our Gross domestic product (GDP) monthly estimate, UK: February 2023 bulletin, published 13 April 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.

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.

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).

Revisions to IoP

In line with the National Accounts revision policy, this release (published on 13 April 2023), aligns with the latest GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: October to December 2022 published on 31 March 2023. Periods from January 2022 were open to revision in this Quarterly national accounts release, with January 2023 open for revision in today's IoP publication.

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.