Yahoo Finance Jubilee Brings UK Manufacturing Slump
British manufacturing saw a sharp slump in June as the Queen's Diamond Jubilee added extra bank holidays.
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed that output fell 2.9%, following a slight increase of 1% in May.
It is a 4.3% drop in manufacturing output compared to June last year and shows the sharpest month-on-month fall in UK manufacturing since November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) 2008.
Despite the overall weakness, the decline is less than expected as some analysts had forecast aa annual slump of 5.3%.
Commenting on the figures Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) economist George Buckley said: "It was always going to fall sharply because of the extra bank holiday, although we're told this is less sharp than we thought."
He explained the impact these figures might have on GDP saying: "I'm not sure that this will be enough to bring any upside to overall GDP, it certainly raises the risk that we won't see the fall in GDP quite as much."
Casting his view, economist Peter Dixon from Commerzbank (Other OTC: CRZBF.PK - news) added: "It is confirmation perhaps that the economy is perhaps not as flat on its back as people expected.
"The wider position of the economy is by no means as bad as the GDP figures suggest."
Mr Dixon explained: "The UK manufacturing sector is hit by the weakness of eurozone demand, that's clear in recent months there's been an awful loss of momentum."
Referring to the Jubilee holidays, he said: "But then you do have that working day effect which will cost a lot - That explains why we have such a sharp jump down."
:: The ONS industrial output figures come ahead of the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report.
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