A small ray of light amid the manufacturing gloom in the UK

摘要

As the latest figures are published forecasting another big slump in manufacturing output and huge job losses through the year, Mark Simms wonders if the numbers tell the whole story. All the government talk of rebalancing the economy back towards a healthier manufacturing base gave us all reason to hope that maybe things are going to change for the better. Unfortunately, there's no sign of it happening yet. Manufacturing output is still heading down, and the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports that forecasts for growth in the volume of output have been revised down to a fall of 5.1% from 4.6%. With a heavy reliance on exports to a world market that is universally weak, the UK's manufacturing sector has been shown to be far from recession proof.