British manufacturers enjoy strong start to 2014 as exports rise at fastest pace for nearly three years
By Hugo Duncan for the Daily Mail
British manufacturers enjoyed a strong start to 2014 as exports rose at the fastest pace for nearly three years, a report showed yesterday.
The closely-watched purchasing managers' index of activity in the sector hit 56.7 in January – down from 57.2 in December but still well above the 50 cut-off between growth and decline.
It was the strongest reading in Europe – just above Germany's score of 56.5 and far stronger than France's dismal 49.3 – and fuelled hopes that 2014 will be the best year for the British economy since before the Great Recession. The report, by Markit and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, showed increased demand for UK goods from North America, Europe, Asia, Brazil, Scandinavia and the Middle East.
Driving ahead: The purchasing managers' index hit 56.7 in January - down from 57.2 in December but still well above the 50 cut-off between growth and decline
The index for exports hit 57.5 – its highest level since February 2011 – and firms ploughed money into new computers and printers as well as plants and machinery in a sign investment spending is picking up.
CIPS chief executive David Noble hailed 'a broad based and fully fledged recovery in manufacturing'. He said: 'The export market has long been heralded as the key to unlock UK economic growth and in manufacturing appears to be coming to fruition.'
Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said: 'UK manufacturing made a strong start to the new year, continuing the robust upsurge in production seen at the tail end of 2013.
'The long-awaited rebalancing of economic growth may also finally be within sight.
'Recent months have seen the largest surge in demand for UK investment goods for two decades while new export orders are rising at one of the fastest rates ever recorded.'
France was not the only country to post disappointing figures with the Chinese manufacturing PMI dropping from 50.5 in December to 49.5 in January.
But the biggest shock came in the United States where the ISM manufacturing index collapsed from 56.5 to 51.3 – far worse than expected and the weakest since May last year.
British manufacturers enjoy strong start to 2014 as exports rise