British factories enjoyed a pick-up in activity last month but the flagging global economy took its toll on exporters and the manufacturing sector shed more jobs.
A closely watched measure of manufacturing, the Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index, beat economists’ expectations and rose to a three-month high. The headline index hit 52.9 in January, up from 52.1 in December and well above the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction. Economists had forecast a slowdown and a reading of 51.7, according to a Reuters poll.
“The UK manufacturing sector registered an uptick in its rate of expansion at the start of 2016, shrugging off a number of potential headwinds, ranging from global financial market volatility to localised flooding in the north of the country,” said Rob Dobson, a senior economist at the survey compilers Markit.
The survey of some 600 companies paints a more upbeat picture than official data for last year, which showed manufacturing output stagnated in the final quarter of 2015, leaving Britain’s service sector to drive overall economic growth.
