Costs for UK manufacturers drop British manufacturers" costs in May fell at the fastest pace since the global recession began in 2008, while the prices of goods leaving the factory gate also fell by more than expected, official data on Friday showed. The Office for National Statistics" input price index fell 2.5 per cent from April, the single largest monthly fall since December 2008. The last time the one-month decline was larger was in November 2009 as world trade dried up in the aftermath of the financial crisis. But if prices are falling, the latest survey from the Bank of England suggests that households are not feeling it. The GfK/NOP quarterly survey of inflation attitudes found the median view of the current inflation rate to be 4.7 per cent, down marginally from 4.8 per cent in February, while further out, the public is convinced that inflation will pick up. Over the next 12 months, the median forecast was for prices to rise at an annual rate of 3.4 per cent, up from 2.9 per cent in February. The input price index forms part of the overall producer price index and although there is no direct correlation between its movements and those of the much broader consumer price index, trends in the former often show up in the latter. Economists said the easing of price pressures might make it easier for the Bank of England to use monetary stimulus to help lift demand in a clearly stagnating economy. "The May producer price data are benign and boost hopes that consumer price inflation will head down appreciably further over the coming months," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight. As such, the producer price data may help to ease some of the concerns over persistent sticky inflation within the Monetary Policy Committee and facilitate further quantitative easing should the economy show further weakness. Even though economists had expected a decline in input prices, the outcome was much larger than the consensus forecast of 2.1 per cent. The ONS said the fall was driven mainly by price decreases for crude oil, imported metals, fuels and other imported parts and equipment. Meanwhile, the price of goods leaving the factory gate, the output prices index, fell 0.2 per cent in May, more than the 0.1 per cent decline expected in consensus forecasts. The ONS said this was driven mainly by falling prices for petroleum, chemical and pharmaceutical products. However, these were partially offset by rising prices for food, tobacco and alcohol. Measured on an annual basis, prices paid by manufacturers for raw goods have barely moved over the past year, registering a rise of 0.1 per cent since May 2011. The price of goods leaving the factory gate rose 2.8 per cent over the past year, down from an annual rate of 3.2 per cent in the year to April.