NI Composite Economic Index: Q3-2018

Date published: 17 January 2019

The NICEI is an experimental quarterly measure of the performance of the NI economy based on available official statistics.

Key points

• The Northern Ireland Composite Economic Index (NICEI) results show that NI economic activity was estimated to have increased by 0.4% in real terms from Quarter 2 (April – June) 2018 to Quarter 3 (July – September) 2018. The index increased by 2.1% over the year to Quarter 3 2018.
• Over the last two years annual output (averaged over the four quarters to Quarter 3 2018 compared to the previous four quarters) increased by 0.5%. Although the measures are not produced on a fully equivalent basis, comparisons with the UK over the same period show that the NICEI grew at a slower rate (0.5%) than UK GDP1 (1.5%). In the UK quarterly (0.6%) growth was slightly higher but annual (1.5%) growth was lower than that recorded for NI (0.4% and 2.1% respectively).
• The NI private sector index was estimated to have increased by 0.6% over the quarter and by 2.5% over the year to Quarter 3 2018.
• The Public sector jobs index decreased by 0.2% over the quarter but increased by 0.6% over the year to Quarter 3 2018.
• Full report available here