8/2/2014: Q4 2013 data on Services Activity in Ireland

In the previous post I covered some top-level data for Irish Services Index for December 2013: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2014/02/822014-services-index-monthly-series.html

As promised, we now shall take a look at the data on quarterly basis, stripping out some volatility in the monthly series. Note, all data below references seasonally-adjusted series.

In Q4 2013, compared to Q3 2014:

• Wholesale Trade activity shrunk 1.71%, pushing y/y drop to 5.85% which is worse than the 4.54% annual drop recorded in Q3 2013. The sector reading is the lowest since Q4 2010.
• Wholesale and Retail Trade, Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles sector activity fell 5.89% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual drop of 7.95% in Q4 2013, much worse than 0.19% decline recorded in Q3 2013. The sector is at the lowest reading for any quarter since Q3 2011.
• Transportation & Storage sector activity fell 5.73% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual drop of 4.47% in Q4 2013, much worse than a rise of 1.34% recorded in Q3 2013.
• Accommodation and Food Services sector activity rose 3.73% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual rise of 1.34% in Q4 2013, much better than a 3.6%% decline recorded in Q3 2013. The sector reading is at the highest level since Q3 2012
• In the above, Food services sector activity rose 4.89% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual rise of 5.27% in Q4 2013, much better than 0.99% decline recorded in Q3 2013.
• Also in  the above, Accommodation services activity rose 6.29% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual rise of 0.83% in Q4 2013, much better than 6.93% decline recorded in Q3 2013.

In the above chart:

• ICT sector activity rose 1.96% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual rise of 1.96% in Q4 2013, much worse than 4.45% rise recorded in Q3 2013.
• Professional, Scientific and Technical services sector activity fell 3.26% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual drop of 12.38% in Q4 2013, much worse than 5.16% decline recorded in Q3 2013. The sector hit its historical low in Q4 2013.

Now, to the last bit:

• Administrative and support service activities sector rose 0.96% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual rise of 20.94% in Q4 2013, compared to 21.77% rise recorded in Q3 2013
• Overall services activity fell 2.23% in Q4 2013 compared to Q3 2013, and there was an annual fall of 2.69% in Q4 2013, compared to a rise of 2.19% y/y recorded in Q3 2013.

And summary of q/q changes for Q4:

So decent news on Accommodation and Food sector side, poor growth on ICT services side and for Admin and backoffice side, and outright shrinking on all other sectors...

Annual data summary next.