UK Manufacturing Falls Unexpectedly in May

July 8, 2014 Share Print 0

Manufacturing output in the UK recorded a surprise fall of 1.3% in May, the biggest decline since January 2013.

The figure from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) was much weaker than economists’ forecasts of an increase of 0.4%.

Manufacturing data and surveys so far this year have indicated that the sector is growing robustly.

The wider measure of industrial output also fell in May, the ONS figures showed, dropping by 0.7%.

Compared with a year earlier, manufacturing output was up 3.7% in May, down from April’s increase of 4.3%, while annual growth in industrial output slowed to 2.3% from 2.9%.

May’s decline in output echoes a similar stutter in German industrial production, which fell 1.8% in May, figures released on Monday showed.

via BBC

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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.