New Data And The Measurement Of Output For The Service Sector In The United Kingdom

Despite the growing importance of the service sector in the economies of most countries, the range of statistical information available falls well short of requirements. This paper outlines international developments in this area and describes what has been done in the United Kingdom to fill some of the gaps, essentially for the national accounts, including collection of monthly or quarterly turnover and price data, and also the derivation of quarterly estimates of current price GDP by industry. The paper also looks briefly at certain aspects relating to the use of the new data. The growth in the importance of the services sector in economic activity in most industrialized countries has increased the range of statistical information now collected in this area. Increasing demand from businesses has also been an important factor in the development of these statistics. Nonetheless, the range of data available still falls well short of requirements in scope, frequency and quality. This is true of both annual and short‐period information. This paper begins by taking a look at recent developments, internationally, in the field of service sector statistics. It then considers how service sector statistics are evolving in the U.K. with particular reference to data required for national accounts, and including reflections on some initial work on the collection of price information. There follows some brief discussion of the various approaches to the measurement of the movement in constant price value added, together with a description of some recent work in the U.K. on deriving an equivalent quarterly current price series. Finally, a short section considers possible future developments in the U.K., particularly with respect to prices.