Fillip for factory output

Manufacturing output rose after six consecutive periods of falls, official figures show.

Output rose by 0.5% in the three months ending April, compared with the previous three-month period. It was the first three-monthly rise since September 2012.

The main contributions to the rise were in “other manufacturing and repair” and “wood and paper products and printing” with increases of 3.7% and 6.5% respectively.

However, output was down by 2.9% in “machinery and equipment not elsewhere specified” and 2.6% in “computer, electronic and optical products”.

Manufacturing output was down by 1.2% on the same three months in 2012. The last rise in this dataset was in the three months to October 2011.

The index of production (manufacturing, mining and utilities) rose by 0.8% in the three months ending April on the previous three-month period. But the bad news was that production output was down by 1.5% on the same three-month period a year ago.

The more volatile monthly figures show manufacturing output was down by 0.2% in April on the previous month and 0.5% down on a year ago. For production there was an increase of 0.1% on the previous month, but a 0.6% decrease on a year ago.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_314320.pdf