The manufacturing sector suffered an unexpected setback in April after enjoying its best performance in 11 months the previous month, official figures showed yesterday.
The office for National Statistics revealed that manufact uring output fell a seasonally-adjusted 0.2 per cent from the previous month, against an unrevised 0.7 per cent rise in March and expectations of a 0.3 per cent increase.
The April decline was the weakest performance since October 2005's 0.7 per cent fall and stands in marked contrast to a raft of surveys indicating that the beleaguered sector is e njoying a significant improvement in fortunes.
The April manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index shot up to its highest level in one and a half years.
The statistics office said there were no significant rises within manufacturing during April. The main decline was registered by the paper, printing and publishing industries, which saw a 1.3 per cent fall in output as well as electrical and optical equipment - boosted in March by the manufacture of television sets in the run-up to the World Cup soccer tournament.
On a year-on-year basis, NS said there was a 0.5 per cent rise in April, lower than expectations of a 0.7 per cent jump.
In March, output was 1.6 per cent up on the previous year, higher than the 1.1 per cent previously estimated. A spokesman for the statistics office said seasonal adjustments related to the timing of Easter was the main reason behind the upward revision.
The wider industrial production measure, which also includes mining, quarrying and utilities as well as oil and gas output, fell by a seasonally-adjusted 0.6 per cent in April from the previous month, against predictions for a 0.4 per cent increase. In March, it rose an unrevised 0.7 per cent.
On a year-on-year basis, industrial production, which accounts for around 20 per cent of UK GDP, was one per cent lower, against forecasts of an unchanged reading. In March, the annual rate was 0.7 per cent higher, up on the previous forecast of 0.3 per cent. Again, seasonal adjustment revisions to do with Easter prompted the upward revision.
On a three monthly basis up to May, manufacturing output rose 0.6 per cent from the previous three months and industrial output by 0.2 per cent.
Compared with the same three months a year ago, manufacturing output was 0.2 per cent higher while industrial output was 0.7 per cent lower.
Separately, better results of the Manufacturing Technologies Association trends survey for the first quarter of 2006 showed order intake accelerated in the early part of the year and that firms predict further growth, albeit at a more modest pace, for the second quarter.
The percentage balance for business confidence was +24 per cent.
