Fact Service (March 2010)

Issue 10

Manufacturing’s green shoots grow stronger

Manufacturing continued its recovery into the start of 2010, according to the latest official figures.

The output of the UK’s manufacturing sector rose by 1.0% in the three months to January 2010 on the previous three-month period and was at its highest level for the year in the fourth quarter.

There was a 4.2% quarter-on-quarter rise in the engineering and allied industries and a 1.0% increase in base metals and other products. However, the food, drink and tobacco industries showed a 0.4% fall, while the textile, leather and clothing industries posted a fall of 5.3%.

The index of manufacturing showed a 2.3% fall on the same three-month period a year earlier.

The more volatile monthly figures produced by the Office for National Statistics showed that in January 2010 manufacturing output rose by 0.2% on January 2009.

Output rose in four of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors and fell in the other nine. The largest increase 17.0% was in transport equipment industries. Within this sub-sector there were particularly strong rises of 38.9% in car manufacture and 14.1% in “aircraft and spacecraft”.

Output of the production industries (manufacturing, mining and utilities) rose by 1.0% in the three months to January 2010 on the previous three-month period, but was 3.7% down on the same three-month period a year earlier. On a monthly basis, production was down by 1.5% on a year earlier.

www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/iop0310.pdf


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