In the three months to December 2017, the Index of Production was estimated to have increased by 0.5% compared with the three months to September 2017, due to a rise of 1.3% in manufacturing; this was partially offset by a decrease of 4.7% in mining and quarrying, caused mainly by the shut-down of the Forties oil pipeline for a large part of December 2017.

Within manufacturing, 9 of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors experienced growth; the largest contribution to quarterly growth came from basic metals and metal products, which increased by 5.7%.

Total production output increased by 2.3% for the three months to December 2017 compared with the same three months to December 2016; manufacturing provided the largest upward contribution with an increase of 3.4%.