Short-term output indicators: January to March 2026 (main points)
Data showing the short term movements in the output of industries in the production, construction and market services sectors for January to March 2026.
In this page
Main points
These estimates cover to January to March 2026 and annual estimates for April 2025 to March 2026.
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.
Production for Wales increased on both an annual and a quarterly basis. Market services however, increased on an annual basis but decreased on a quarterly basis, whilst construction decreased on an annual basis but increased on a quarterly basis.
Figure 1: short-term output indicators, January 1999 to March 2026
Description of figure 1: this chart shows the time series for the indices of production, construction, and market services since 1999. The overall trend is the index of market services and index of production have generally increased since 1999, but the index of construction has fluctuated over the same time period. All indices experienced a steep fall in 2020 Quarter 2 (April to June 2020) due to the coronavirus pandemic, however have since been recovering or are fully recovered.
Source: Short-term output indicators, Welsh Government and ONS
Index of Market Services
The longer-term trend shows a 0.1% increase for Wales and a 1.2% increase for the UK in the year to March 2026 compared with the previous 12 months.
In Wales, 6 of the 9 sub-sectors increased on an annual basis, whilst 3 decreased. Seven of the 9 sub-sectors increased in the UK over the same period, with 2 seeing no change.
The Index of Market Services for Wales decreased by 0.9% when compared to the previous quarter. UK output increased by 0.9% over the same period.
Index of Production
The longer-term trend shows a 0.1% increase for Wales and a 0.3% decrease for the UK in the year to March 2026 compared with the previous 12 months.
The Index of Production for Wales shows a 0.1% increase when compared to the previous quarter. UK output increased by 0.2% over the same period.
Index of Construction
The longer-term trend shows a 7.5% decrease for Wales and a 0.4% decrease for the UK in the year to March 2026 compared with the previous twelve months.
The Index of Construction for Wales shows a 6.3% increase when comparing the latest quarter to the previous quarter. UK output increased by 0.2% over the same period.
