UK manufacturing industry growth continues

The UK announced a growth in industry over the month of July, showing an upturn in manufacturing, a report out today has suggested.

The news comes along with ongoing signs of improvement in the once mighty UK manufacturing sector, despite years of closure and job cuts brought on by cheaper foreign labour.

The figures released by UK government sponsored body the National Office of Statistics reflected growth for the fourth month in a row through June, signalling the longest period of consistent growth this decade.

The Office for National Statistics revealed today the growth amounted to an annual increase of almost 1.0%, with 0.2% of that increase coming across the month of June.

Only hours before, the CBI announced job cuts in manufacturing had decreased over the last month, further bolstering the UK manufacturing sector.

The figures highlights an almost six-fold decrease in the number of lay-offs compared to 2003, which saw 5,000 job cuts this quarter as compared to 30,000 only 4 years ago. The news has helped reassure investors of the resilience of UK manufacturing on a worldwide level.

The news has been well received on the FTSE, in what has been a good day for the British economy.

Combined with strong company performance in insurance and aerospace domination off the back of cheaper crude oil prices, trading in London today was unsurprisingly strong, despite ongoing concerns about the health of the US economy.

Strong performance within the transport sector was largely put up in support of today’s results, whilst a general growth and strengthening of manufacturing business was considered to be behind the consistently impressive performance.

The UK economy continues to show strong growth, despite signs that moves to curb inflation may be working effectively as planned in dampening consumer spending and disposable income.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: UK manufacturing industry growth continues