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