UK manufacturing slows in December, misses forecasts

Growth in the UK manufacturing sector slowed in December, missing economists’ expectations.

The Markit/CIPS manufacturing purchasing managers’ index dropped to 51.9 from 52.5 in November, falling short of forecasts for a reading of 52.8.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said: “The UK manufacturing sector ended 2015 on a disappointing note, with its rate of growth slowing further from October’s recent high back down towards the stagnation mark. This suggests that industry will make, at best, only a marginal positive contribution to broader economic growth in the final quarter of the year.”

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "December’s manufacturing PMI suggests that the downturn in the industrial sector has much further to run.

"The drop in the PMI was broad-based, with consumer, intermediate and investment goods producers all reporting declining growth in output. Meanwhile, the fall in the new orders balance to 52.2 from 53.6 - to its lowest level since September 2014 - implies little chance of an imminent recovery.”