UK manufacturing output falls -0.1% in March

The UK manufacturing output falls -0.1% over the month in March, in line with market expectations.
The UK industrial production rises 0.1% over the month in March.

Mario Blascak, PhD Independent Analyst

The report from the Office for National Statistics said that there has been no evidence that the heavy snowfall in March 2018 had no significant impact on manufacturing output.

When compared to a year ago, both the UK manufacturing output and the index of industrial production rose 2.9% y/y, accelerating from 2.5% y/y and 2.1% y/y respectively in the previous month.

The manufacturing output report also said that the Index of Production estimate for the first quarter of 2018 was revised down by 0.1% from the increase of 0.7% originally published in the preliminary estimate of the Gross domestic product in combination with the publication of the Construction output. The headline GDP growth rate has not been impacted to one decimal place.

The slowdown in the UK manufacturing was indicated by the manufacturing PMI that decelerated sharply in both March and in April. According to manufacturing PMI report from IHS/Markit, the UK manufacturing activity gauge fell to 54.9 in March and decelerated further to 53.9 in April. The manufacturing PMI for April was at the lowest level in last 17 months.

Author

Mario Blascak, PhD

Independent Analyst

Dr. Mário Blaščák worked in professional finance and banking for 15 years before moving to journalism. While working for Austrian and German banks, he specialized in covering markets and macroeconomics.

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