Industrial Output Falls By 1.5%

Industrial output decreased by 1.5% between August 2012 and 2013 and reflects a 0.2% fall in manufacturing, 10.2% in mining and quarrying and 3.5% in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning according to the ONS.

A large upward contribution came from transport equipment manufacturing with an increase of 12.5% mainly from the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers.

The monthly comparison shows a decrease of 1.1% between July and August 2013. All four sectors fell with the biggest falls in manufacturing at 1.2%.

Durables Maintaining Growth Trends

Motor vehicles in particular have continued the growth trends in consumer goods in the first quarter of 2013 according to the ONS. The latest Consumer Trends statistical bulletin suggests that purchases of cars and household appliances has continued to gain in strength as spending on cars increased by 3.1% in terms of volume and on durables by 2.1%. Spending on major household appliances increased by 5.7%.

Household spending grew by 0.3% in the first quarter of this year due mainly to growth in spending on housing, water, gas elecytricity and other fuels. Households spent 0.3% more in volume terms well below the peak of Q4 2007 but 3.4% more than the recent low of Q2 2009. Current price spending was 17.6% higher than Q2 2009.

Household spending per head in current price terms increased by 0.8% to £3993, £340 more than in Q4 2007.

Manufacturing Keeps Up Investment

Manufacturing investment increased by 15.7% over the quarter and by 31.7% over the year to Q3 2011 according to the latest business investment bulletin from the ONS.

Total business investment actually fell by 1.4% to £30.2bn over the previous quarter. Non-manufacturing investment fell by 3.4% over the quarter. Business investment rose over the quarter by 0.3%.

The increase in overall manufacturing was mainly due to an increase of 66.9% in metal goods, 61.8% in other manufacturing and 21.8% in engineering and vehicles in private sector manufacturing which increased by 15.7% to £3.7bn. The fall in investment was mainly due to the a in private sector non-manufacturing which fell 4.4% to £25.4bn.

Transport Helps Manufacturing Increase By 2%

The index of production published by the ONS fell by 0.7% in September 2011 compared with September 2010. The manufacturing index rose by 2.0%, increasing in 8 of the 13 sub-sectors and falling in 5. The transport equipment industries contributed the most to the increase, the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers making the biggest contribution within the sub-sector.

In the monthly comparison between August and September 2011, production remained unchanged with manufacturing rising by 0.2%. The index of production rose by 0.4 per cent in Q3 2011.

Inflation Up To 4%

The latest inflation data from the ONS says that CPI annual inflation now stands at 4% from 3.7% in December. The government target for CPI is 2%. The main contributory factors were petrol and diesel prices, restaurants and cafes, furniture and furnishings, alcoholic beverages and vehicle purchases. Two important factors that also made an impact were the increase in VAT and the price of crude oil. Downward pressure on the CPI came from recreation and culture, banking services and clothing and footwear. The RPI increased from 4.8% in December to 5.1% in January 2011.

The all items CPI hasn't been higher since November 2008, non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants and hotels and petrol haven't been higher since records began.

Business Research And Development

Total research and development expenditure in cash terms in business in 2009 totalled £15.6bn, that is a fall of 2.5% on 2008. The ONS sub-divides business R & D into civil and defence spending. Civil R & D expenditure decreased by 1.4% to £13.7bn and defence expenditure decreased by 10.2% to £1.9bn. In real terms total expenditure decreased by 4.1% to £15.6bn within which civil expenditure decreased by 3% to £13.7bn.

The product group with the highest R & D performance was pharmaceuticals at £4.4bn or 28.4% of all spending. Other significant product groups included aerospace (£1.5bn), computers (£1.5bn), motor vehicles and parts (£1.1bn) and telecommunications (£1.1bn). The region with the highest performance in terms of expenditure was the East of England (24.9%), the South East (23%) and the North West (13.1%) and the lowest in England was the North East (2%) and in the UK N. Ireland (1.9%). In terms of employment, the South East was highest employing the most people in R & D with 35,000, the East of England employed 30,000. The North East, Wales and N. Ireland employed the least at 4,000 each.

Manufacturing Index Up In March

The ONS' Index of Production statistical release tells us that seasonally adjusted index rose by 2% in March 2010 to 89.4 compared with March 2009 and the manufacturing index rose by 3.3% to 92.0.

The manufacturing index component sub-sectors output increased in 9 of the 13 sub-sectors and decreased in 4 sub-sectors. The largest increases were in transport equipment with a rise of 16.9% and basic metals and metal products with 4.6%. The manufacture of motor vehicles had the largest rise within the transport equipment industries with 52.3%. Within basic metals and metal products the largest rise was in the manufacture of cutlery, tools and general hardware with 20.4%.

In the other broad industry groups, mining and quarrying fell by 3.1% and the electricity, gas and water supply industries fell 1.8% compared with March 2009.

In the main industrial groupings consumer durables rose 2% from 0.2% in the previous month on month. Capital goods rose 8.7% from 5.7% in March 2009 and intermediate goods rose 1.2% after a fall of 2% the previous month.

Production Down In February

The index of production fell by 0.1% in February 2010. The index of manufacturing increased by 1.4%, the mining and quarrying index fell by 7.6% and the energy supply industries index 2.6% according to the latest statistics from the ONS.

The production index increased in 8 of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors and fell in 5 sub-sectors. The transport equipment sub-sector increased the most with an increase of 16.9% over the year within which the manufacture of motor vehicles increased 51.6% and the manufacture of aircraft and spacecraft went up 12%. Food, drink and tobacco increased by 2.8% within which meat and meat products increased by 16.3% and the processing and preservation of fish, fruit and vegetables by 16.5%. The largest contributor to the year on year increase in the manufacturing index of 1.4% was transport equipment with 1.8%. The food, drink and tobacco industries increased by 0.4%.

The mining and quarrying index fell by 7.6% in February 2010 compared with February 2009. Oil and gas extraction decreased by 8.9% and coal by 16.9%. Over the year there was an 8.1% decrease in oil and gas extraction that contributed to the 7.6% year on year decrease.

Electricity supply output decreased by 7.5% contributing to the overall 2.6% fall in output in electricity, gas and water supply. Consumer durables and capital goods reported increases of 0.6% and 6.2% respectively in February.

Production Figures For January

The latest Index of Production from the Office for National Statistics says that the index of production fell by 1.5% compared with last year and the index of manufacturing rose by 0.2% compared with January last year

In the manufacturing sector 4 of the 13 categories reported increases while 9 fell. The largest increases in transport, in particular the manufacture motor vehicles which increased by 38.9%, and the manufacture of aircraft and spacecraft which increased by 14.1%. Food, drink and tobacco also increased, in particular meat and meat products by 12.6%, and the processing of fish, fruit and vegetables by 11.6%.