Manufacturing output creeps up

Overall production output increased by 0.3% in June (the market had expected an increase of 0.6%). The largest contribution to the quarterly growth in production came from electricity, gas, steam & air conditioning output, which increased by 4.4%. Year-on-year production output between June 2013 and June 2014 increased by 1.2%. This reflected increases of 1.9% in manufacturing and 0.4% in water supply, sewerage & waste management. Total production increased by 0.3% between May 2014 and June 2014. There were increases in three of the main sectors, with manufacturing, the largest contributor, increasing by 0.3%. The main manufacturing components contributing to the increase between May 2014 and June 2014 were transport equipment; basic metals & metal products and food products, beverages & tobacco. Production and manufacturing were 11.4% and 7.4% respectively below their figures reached in the pre-downturn GDP peak in Q1 2008.