This is the first Index of Production release to incorporate Value Added Tax (VAT), using data from over 75,000 businesses across 64 industries, on top of the returns from the 6,000 sample each month from the Monthly Business Survey.

In the three months to November 2017, the Index of Production was estimated to have increased by 1.2% compared with the three months to August 2017, due mainly to a rise of 1.4% in manufacturing.

There was strong broad-based growth across manufacturing in the three months to November 2017; the largest contribution came from machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified, which included renewable energy equipment, with an increase of 5.6%.