Fact Service March 2011

Issue 10

Manufacturing goes onwards and upwards

Manufacturing continued its recovery and posted its 15th consecutive three-monthly rise in the three months to January, according to the Office for National Statistics. The last time a fall was recorded was back in October 2009.

Output was up by 1.3% on the previous three-month period, following on from rises of 1.1% for both the three-month period to December and to November.

Growth was particularly strong in engineering and allied industries where output was up by 4.8% on the previous three-month period.

The index of manufacturing was up by 5.5% on the same three-month period a year earlier.

The more volatile monthly figures show manufacturing output increased by 6.8% in January compared with the previous October.

Output increased in 12 of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors and fell in the other. The largest increases in output were in the electrical and optical industries which rose by 14.6% and the transport equipment industries which rose by 12.0%.

Output of the production industries (manufacturing, utilities and mining) has been more variable over the past year. However, it rose by 1.2% in the three months to January on the previous three-month period — the fourth consecutive rise — and it was up by 3.7% on the same three-month period a year ago.

www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/iop0311.pdf