Monthly Indicator of Industrial Activity (IMAI). Base year 2018

In 1988, the INEGI released for the first time the results of the Monthly Indicator of Industrial Activity (IMAI), based on the year 1980; the 1980-1995 series was completed during the first quarter of 1996.

With the change from the base 1980 to the base 1993 of the System of National Accounts of Mexico (SCNM), the first product to be published was the IMAI, in response to the great need for highly representative, timely and updated information. With the revision of the industrial surveys in 1993, better coverage was obtained in the industrial sector, the treatment given to the monthly statistics of the maquila export industry made it possible for it to be measured separately from the processing industries, significantly enriching the statistical base that the country had at that time. The series based on 1993 in its first stage began in January 1993 and lasted until January 1996, then the retropolated series were published up to the year 1980 of the main aggregates and the series was completed until the month of February of 2008.

In 2008, the monthly series of Industrial Activity were published with the base year in 2003, covering the period from 2003 to 2008. The update of the base year every 10 years in all SCNM products gave the opportunity to adopt the new North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which in its 2002 version made it possible to carry out comparisons with the statistics of the partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Canada and the United States of America. Subsequently, in a second stage of the works to update the Short-Term products, retropolated series of Industrial Activity were released, covering since 1993, which increased the availability of current information, thereby meeting the users' demand for this information.

In August 2013, the SCNM was updated to the base year 2008, this was carried out in accordance with international recommendations on the matter. Likewise, the NAICS in its 2007 version was used and, Mexico became the fourth country in the world to implement the System of National Accounts (SNA) 2008, after Australia, Canada and the United States. In addition, it was the first time that a five-year update of the base year was carried out, in line with international best practices. Also, for the first time in a base year change, results were offered for 14 different products, among which were: Supply and Use Table 2008, Input-Output Matrix 2008, Goods and Services Accounts, Satellite Accounts and Regional and Short-Term Calculations. For the results of the IMAI base 2008, data series were available from January 1993 to June 2013, where the recommendations of national and international users were met within the framework of the National Accounts, among which the allocation of Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (SIFMI) by type of economic activity.

By October 2017, the SCNM presented 28 different products in the base year 2013, and it was possible for the second time to make a five-year base year change consecutively. These products adopted the updates of the NAICS version 2013; among them were: Supply and Use Table 2013, Output Matrix 2013, Goods and Services Accounts, Satellite Accounts and, Short-Term and Regional Calculations. The IMAI series reported results from January 1993 to August 2017.

In the Base 2018, the SCNM is using the updates of the NAICS version 2018, as well as the recommendations of the Manual of Quarterly National Accounts, 2017 edition, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On this occasion, the IMAI Base Year 2018 series cover the period from January 1993 to June 2023, incorporating methodological improvements and updating the sample designs of the economic surveys carried out within the Institute. Just as in the last base year changes, the following were updated at the same time: Supply and Use Table 2018, Input-Output Matrix 2018, Goods and Services Accounts, Satellite Accounts and Short-Term and Regional Calculations.