Manufacturing record

UK industrial output looks set to contribute strongly to economic expansion in the final months of 2017 as manufacturing hit a ten-year record but construction is likely to drag, official data showed yesterday.

Industrial output rose 0.4 per cent in November, up from 0.2 per cent in October, giving an annual rise of 2.5 per cent, the Office for National Statistics said. This was ahead of economists’ consensus expectations for an output rise of 0.3 per cent on the month and 1.8 per cent on the year.

Manufacturing enjoyed an especially strong three months to November, with output 3.9 per cent higher than a year before, its biggest rise since February 2008.

“There was strong and widespread growth across manufacturing with notable increases from renewable energy projects, boats, planes and cars for export,” ONS statistician Ole Black said.

By contrast, the ONS said construction output in the three months to November slid 2 per cent compared with the previous three months, the biggest decline since August 2012. Private housebuilding provided the only positive news, with civil engineering and commercial construction both in the doldrums.

Britain’s economy grew 0.4 per cent in the three months to September, and the Bank of England said in November it expected a repeat of that performance in the last three months of 2017.

Howard Archer, chief economic advisor at the EY Item Club, said it was a “mixed bag” of data that was likely to mean the Bank’s Q4 growth forecasts were met.

He said the construction sector’s subdued rise in output in November failed “by a long way to compensate for sharp drops in October and September”.