Index of Services, UK: July 2024

• We estimate that the Index of Services (IoS) output increased by 0.1% in July 2024; this follows a 0.1% fall in June 2024.

• The IoS saw monthly increases in 10 of the 14 sectors in July 2024, with the largest contributions to the monthly increase coming from “information and communication” (0.8%); and “wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles” (0.5%).

• The monthly increase was mainly offset by a negative contribution from “professional, scientific and technical activities” (down 1.3%).

• We estimate that in the three months to July 2024, the monthly services output increased by 0.6%, when compared with the three months to April 2024.

• The IoS saw increases in 11 of the 14 sectors in the three months to July 2024, when compared with the three months to April 2024.

• The main positive contributing sectors in the three months to July 2024 were “professional, scientific and technical activities” (2.0%); “wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles” (0.7%) and “public administration and defence; compulsory social security” (1.0%); these sectors contributed over half of the rise in the three months to July 2024.

Response rates for July 2024

The response rates for July 2024 were 72.9% based on forms returned. This accounted for 87.2% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. For further information, see our Current and historical Monthly Business Survey (MBS) (services) response rates dataset.

Data sources and collection

The Index of Services (IoS) is compiled using data from several different sources (share of overall economy based on latest gross value added (GVA) weights). These include the:

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) MBS (34.1%)    
• ONS Retail Sales Inquiry (4.9%)    
• ONS Government Expenditure (14.8%)    
• ONS Households’ Expenditure (11.5%)    
• ONS Finance Expenditure (5.7%)    
• ONS Households and non-profit institutions serving households (1.9%)
• other (4.4%)

The MBS data are published alongside this release in our MBS turnover of services industries dataset.

Data relating to the retail industry are broadly comparable with our Retail sales, Great Britain: July 2024 bulletin, published on 16 August 2024.

For further information on what is included within “other”, please see our Gross domestic product (GDP(o)) data sources catalogue.

The percentage of each data source is based on their gross value-added weight. Our IoS methods and sources pages provide more information on the data that underpin these statistics; of particular note is our GDP(o) data sources catalogue.

Value Added Tax (VAT) data are also included for small and medium sized businesses to help inform estimates. For more information, see our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology.

Quality and methodology

The data reported in IoS bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, for example, sampling variability and non-sampling error. For more information on these, see Section 2 of our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology.

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

Accredited Official Statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April 2014. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled “accredited official statistics”.

Revisions to IoS

In line with our National Accounts Revisions Policy, this release provides data for July 2024 for the first time, no revisions for periods prior.

Blue Book 2024 publication update

The 2024 UK Annual National Accounts, also known as Blue Book 2024, incorporate several methodological changes focused on data for recent years, along with the addition of more recent survey and administrative information.

On 7 August, we published our Blue Book 2024: advanced aggregate estimates article to give users details of the impact of the 2024 UK National Accounts update on current price and chained volumes measure estimates of GDP from 1997 to 2022.

This article provides estimates for 2022 for the first time, using the supply and use tables (SUTs) framework, as well as improving the estimates for 2020 and 2021 with more recent data. We have also updated the base year to 2022, after holding this fixed since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The next Quarterly National Accounts release on 30 September 2024 will incorporate these revisions in our official estimates in line with our National Accounts Revisions Policy.

These revisions will then be incorporated into our IoS estimates in our release on 11 October 2024.

Until the Blue Book 2024 data are incorporated into our IoS estimates, our monthly GDP estimates will continue to have a reference and base year of 2019.