ONE of the great claims of prime minister David Cameron’s governments was they were going to rebalance the economy, away from dodgy, speculative bankers in favour of worthy, old-fashioned metal-bashers. In fact, over the past five years, manufacturing’s share of Britain’s GDP has barely budged from about 10%. That is disappointing, especially after a raft of government schemes were introduced to help manufacturers. But now, if new figures are to be believed, there may be worse to come.
The EEF manufacturers’ organisation, one of the main bodies representing the sector, has just published its quarterly outlook report, and it makes for bleak reading. The EEF is halving its manufacturing growth forecast to 0.7% and they warn that output is dropping to its lowest level since the end of 2009, in the depths of the recession. New export orders are at a six-year low. Domestic demand has also weakened.
The EEF report comes on the back of other weak data. The Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) of the sector, a measure of output, fell in July from 51.9 to 51.5. Overall, the British economy grew by 0.7% in the second quarter of...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Making Britain make things again is proving difficult
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