British manufacturing set to emerge from recession this quarter

Manufacturers are poised to pull out of recession despite slowing growth in November, industry watchers have said.

The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply’s latest snapshot, where a score over 50 signals growth, showed a bigger-than-feared slowdown from 55.2 to 52.7 in November.

But experts said the sector was likely to return to growth in the current quarter.

This comes despite official figures which showed manufacturing output in reverse since the turn of the year.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compiler Markit, said: “UK manufacturing is moving back into expansion mode during quarter four, as it starts to reverse the losses sustained in the prior quarter.

“Although the pace of growth so far is only very modest, it positions manufacturing as less of a drag on the broader economy,” Dobson added.

Input costs and factory gate prices are falling thanks to low oil and commodity prices, putting less pressure on the Bank to raise interest rates, he said.