Short-term output indicators: October to December 2022

Impact of coronavirus

These estimates cover October to December 2022 and annual estimates for January to December 2022.

Estimates for individual quarters can fluctuate, and estimates for Wales are typically more volatile than for the UK, therefore a consideration of longer-term trends and comparisons are recommended.

Main points

Figure 1: Short-term output indicators, October 2000 to December 2022

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Description of Figure 1: This line chart shows the time series for the indices of production, construction, and market services since 2000. The overall trend is the index of market services and index of production have generally increased since 2000, but the index of construction has fluctuated over the same time period. All indices experienced a steep fall in 2020 Q2 due to the coronavirus pandemic, however have since been recovering or are fully recovered.

Source: Short-term output indicators, Welsh Government and the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

All three indices for Wales increased on an annual basis; the latest four quarters (January 2022 to December 2022). On a quarterly basis, construction showed increases whilst market services and production showed decreases. This follows a period of change with the largest quarterly decreases on record in April to June 2020 (which included part of the initial lockdown period) and the subsequent largest increases on record during July to September 2020 (reflecting the easing of restrictions over the summer months).

Index of Market Services

• The longer-term trend shows a 3.3% increase for Wales and a 5.1% increase for the UK in the year to December 2022, compared with the previous twelve months.
• In Wales, six of the nine Market Service industry indices increased on an annual basis.
• The Index of Market Services for Wales shows a 0.5% decrease when compared to the previous quarter. UK output increased by 0.2% over the same period.

Index of Production

• The longer-term trend shows a 2.8% increase for Wales and a 2.8% decrease for the UK in the year to December 2022, compared with the previous twelve months.  
• The Index of Production for Wales shows a 0.6% decrease when compared to the previous quarter. UK output remained unchanged over the same period.

Index of Construction

• The longer-term trend shows a 11.8% increase for Wales and a 6.2% increase for the UK in the year to December 2022, compared with the previous twelve months.  
• The Index of Construction for Wales shows a 13.1% increase when comparing the latest quarter to the previous quarter. UK output increased by 1.3% over the same period.

Future of this publication

We have been considering the future of this release as a result on ONS producing quarterly regional GDP. We have concluded that it is appropriate to cease the publication of Welsh short term output indicators. We will update users on timings in our next release. If you have any questions about this, please contact economic.stats@gov.wales