Growth sluggish says ONS output data

Manufacturing production was up by a marginal 0.1% in January, a good bit less than the 0.3% analysts had been hoping for, although the slight upward shift follows a strong 1.2% increase in December. Chris Williams, chief economist at Markit said: "Looking at the latest three months, to iron out some of the volatility in the data, manufacturing production rose 0.1% compared to the previous three months, registering the first three-month period of growth since last August. This is by no means a surging recovery, but the trend nevertheless continues to move in the right direction, following the upturn in the business surveys since late last year." UK manufacturing was staging a sluggish recovery from the bout of weakness seen late last year, but is also facing rising price pressures, Willams added. Andrew Johnson, senior economist at the manufacturers' organisation EEF said the latest figures supported leading indicators in recent weeks that suggested manufacturing growth had continued from December into 2012, following a difficult period at the start of the last quarter of 2011.