- Kate Davies, ONS
Manufacturing production resumed to demonstrate downward tendency after two months of the UK's Brexit vote. According to the Office for National Statistics, manufacturing production went down 0.9% in July compared to the month before, influenced by a strong decline in pharmaceutical output. Moreover, economists had expected a fall of 0.3% in July, while the decrease recorded in the previous month was revised up from 0.3% to 0.2%. On an annual pace, production expended 0.8% in July, compared to a downwardly revised 0.6% increase in the previous month and analysts' expectations for a 1.7% gain. On a yearly period, manufacturing production went up 0.8% in July, worse than forecasts for a 1.7% increase.
In the meantime, the weak manufacturing figures challenge an emerging question "What Brexit?" that had been supported by positive consumer and business sentiment data. Moreover, the ONS report releases one of the first post-Brexit-vote reports on actual activity and may revive hopes of additional Bank of England stimulus package after the bank cut its benchmark rate by a quarter point to 0.25% in August.
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