Services output increased by 0.2% between February and March 2017.

The largest contribution to the month-on-month growth came from transport, storage and communication, which contributed 0.23 percentage points of which motion pictures contributed 0.16 percentage points.

The Index of Services increased by 0.2% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2017 compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2016; following growth of 0.8% between Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2016 and Quarter 4 2016.

The slowdown in growth in Quarter 1 2017 mainly came from the distribution, hotels and restaurants sector with notable falls in some consumer-focused industries such as retail.

Growth between Quarter 4 2016 and Quarter 1 2017 has been revised down 0.1% from the previous estimate used in the gross domestic product preliminary estimate, published on 28 April 2017; this was primarily due to the receipt of late data for January and February.