UK manufacturing output slips again

Data has shown that the UK's manufacturing output has declined for the second month in a row in December.

Britain's Office for National Statistics said that there was a 0.1% decline in output in the month.

The decline was unexpected in the light of recent survey evidence which suggested that a recovery in UK manufacturing was gathering pace.

On a year-on-year basis, manufacturing output was up 0.5%. However, that was much lower than the consensus forecast of a 1.1%.

The fall in manufacturing output in December was led by a 1.5% decline in the electrical and optical equipment industries and a 1.1% fall in the chemicals industries.

However, the food, drink and tobacco industries saw a rise of 1.3%.

Meanwhile industrial output - which includes mining and utility production along with manufacturing - fell 0.1% in the month.

Economists had forecast industrial output to rise by 0.5%. Year-on-year, industrial output was down 0.8% in December, against expectations that it would remain unchanged on the year.

Other figures released today from the UK Office of National Statistics showed that raw material costs, or input prices, fell by a seasonally adjusted 1% in January.

The main driver was lower prices for imported goods owing to the strength of the pound against the dollar with prices of imported materials as a whole, including crude oil which is priced in US dollars, falling 1.4% on the month.

Producer output prices rose 0.2% on the month and were 1.6% higher than a year earlier.