Weak UK manufacturing data

According to the Office for National Statistics who published their official figures yesterday, the UK manufacturing sector is in recession, with output 0.4 per cent lower in November than October and 1.2 per cent lower than the previous year. Among the largest contributors to this fall were pharmaceutical, machinery and equipment production, while motor vehicle manufacturing was the exception. The currency markets immediately reacted to this news with a weakening of the Sterling against the Dollar and the Euro. These figures indicate that the industrial sector will be unlikely to contribute to UK GDP growth picking up and have more than likely affected the 2015 fourth quarter growth rate figure, due to be released at the end of the month. On the bright side, Britain is not reliant on the industrial sector alone, which only accounts for 15 per cent of GDP, and the recent softening of the sterling along with very low oil and commodity prices will be likely to help manufacturers.