Further growth recorded for the last month of 2013, with output growth expected to have reached over one percent for the final quarter of the year.
BBC News reported that the UK’s manufacturing sector saw continued growth in December, with the Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) recorded at 57.3 for the month – slightly lower than November’s three-year high of 58.1, but still indicative of expansion and remaining one of the highest figures in the survey’s 22-year history.
According to Markit, growth in manufacturing output and new orders continued to be “robust” due to the country’s strengthening economy and an increase in exports, particularly to Brazil, China, Ireland, Russia and the US.
Rob Dobson, Senior Economist at Markit, commented: “UK manufacturing’s strong upsurge continued at the end of 2013, with rates of growth in production and new orders still among the highest in the 22-year PMI survey history.
“On its current track, the sector should achieve output growth of over one percent in the final quarter while filling around 10,000 to 15,000 jobs, continuing its positive contributions to both the broader economic and labour market recoveries.”
It was also found that both input and output costs rose at faster rates during December, with David Tinsley, UK Economist at BNP Paribas, explaining: “With headline CPI inflation softening for a variety of reasons, this trend in manufacturing price pressures is not likely imminently to trouble the Bank of England. But it does underline that inflation is not dead in the UK, and the economy is likely to sustain a materially higher inflation rate than its peers in 2014.”
The Recycler reported on the growth of the UK’s manufacturing sector throughout 2013, with manufacturing output rising 1.9 percent month-on-month in June and the sector’s growth rate in August reaching the highest level for two and a half years at that time at 57.2.