The largest contribution came from pharmaceuticals, which showed month on previous month growth of 8.3%, followed by metal products at 4.5%, and the computer, electronic and optical sector at 3.7%. ONS said that pharmaceuticals can be highly erratic.
The data comes from the UK index of production and measures the volume of production at base year prices for the manufacturing, mining and quarrying, energy supply, and water and waste industries. Overall, total production from the index was estimated to have increased by 1.1% in December compared with November.
ONS also said that the index of production for Q4 (October to December) was estimated to have increased by 0.3% on the previous three months. Manufacturing grew by 1.2%.
Again, the largest contribution came from pharmaceuticals, which showed three-month on previous three-month growth of 9.8%. This was followed by electrical equipment at 4.6% and coke and petroleum at 3.9%.
And finally, the index of production annual growth for 2016 compared with 2015 was 1.2%, with manufacturing contributing the largest growth, ONS added.
