UK makes the most of it as GDP set for fourth-quarter fillip
Comment Martin Flanagan
It may be short of the march of the manufacturers that George Osborne once called for, but it is enough to be going on with.
The manufacturing sector, helped in terms of exports by the weakness of sterling since the Brexit vote, knocked up its seventh consecutive month of expansion in November for the first time in 20 years. Official data showed that manufacturing output surged a shade under 4 per cent year-on-year in the three months to November, the biggest rise since March 2011, and by 0.4 per cent between October and November.
This helped overall industrial output – the wider measure including the likes of utilities and mining – lift 3.3 per cent over the three months to November. The energy cold snap in the autumn also helped.
Manufacturing remains the headline act, however, with output now at levels close to the pre-financial crisis peak seen in February 2008. The momentum is timely, as the UK’S stalwart services sector is decent rather than stellar currently. And construction? Groundhog day for many who follow the sector, with the building industry seldom seeing more than one, two at best, of its sub-sectors with the sun on their back at any one time.
The latest data shows housebuilding is the area doing well, which might have been guessed from the healthy trading updates coming from many of the UK’S homebuilding companies. The underlying dynamic of too much housing demand meeting inadequate supply continues to remain the sub-sector’s ace in the hole.
Not so fortunate in other construction areas, however. Civil engineering is suffering as the cash-strapped government lowers its sails on many projects, while commercial construction – offices and factories etc – is hit by lower business investment on Brexit uncertainty.
That construction picture is unlikely to alter soon, so let’s hope manufacturing continues in its unfamiliar role (at least since its 1970s heydey and relative 1990s sunset) of the go-to sector for comfort.