UK Manufacturing PMI Slows in December

The UK’s manufacturing sector grew at its slowest pace for three months in December, a survey has indicated.

The Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI fell to 51.9 in December, down from 52.5 in November and October’s measure of 55.5. Any figure over 50 indicates expansion.

The reading was still above average for 2015 and means the sector has expanded for almost three years.

But Markit said it marked a “disappointing” end to the year.

“This suggests that industry will make, at best, only a marginal positive contribution to broader economic growth in the final quarter of the year,” said Markit senior economist Rob Dobson.

“Although this would be an improvement on the second and third quarters, it does also suggest that manufacturing output over 2015 as a whole may be below the level achieved in 2014.”

Manufacturing failed to contribute to economic growth throughout the first three quarters of 2015, with the much larger services industry continuing to drive the UK’s economic recovery.

New orders came in at the slowest pace in five months, according to the survey, while Markit’s index of export orders – which had improved in the previous three months – slipped back.

The result was also worse than economists had expected.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza