Index of Production, UK: May 2023

• Monthly production output is estimated to have fallen 0.6% in May 2023; this follows a fall of 0.2% (revised up from a fall of 0.3%) in April 2023.

• The monthly decrease in output in May 2023 resulted from a decline in three of the four production sectors, with electricity and gas being the main contributor to the monthly fall (2.0%) with smaller contributions from water supply and sewerage (1.7%) and manufacturing (0.2%); this was partially offset by mining and quarrying, which rose 0.3%. 

• Monthly manufacturing output decreased by 0.2% and saw 8 of its 13 sub-sectors negatively contributing to growth during May 2023; most notably, manufacture of wood and paper products and printing (3.0%) and other manufacturing and repair (1.7%) both negatively contributed 0.13 percentage points each to the IoP May 2023 monthly fall; this was offset by the largest positive contribution of 0.24 percentage points, from manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products (4.8%).

• Monthly production output was 0.2% below February 2020, the last month of "normal" trading conditions before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; of the main production sectors, water supply and sewerage, electricity and gas, and manufacturing were above their February 2020 levels, by 9.2%, 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively; in contrast, mining and quarrying was 22.9% below its February 2020 level.

• Looking at the longer-term profile, production output for the three months to May 2023 rose 0.4% compared with the three months to February 2023; growth came primarily from manufacturing (0.8%), partially offset by a fall in mining and quarrying (4.1%). 

• An additional bank holiday was held for the coronation of King Charles III on 8 May 2023. While adjustments are made for regular calendar effects, there was no explicit adjustment for this ad-hoc event. The timing of the bank holiday impacts the number of trading days, which could affect Index of Production (IoP) monthly estimates.

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

All data related to the IoP are available on our Related data page.

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 gives data for May 2023 for the first time with April 2023 also open for revision. Revisions to monthly data from January 2023 to March 2023 published in the GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: January to March 2023 published on 30 June 2023 are also included.