Factory orders hit six-month high amid ‘early signs’ of a turnaround as political certainty improves
Factory orders hit a six-month high in February amid ‘early signs’ of a turnaround.
The monthly trends survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said manufacturing reported the shift during the month as political certainty improved.
The balance of manufacturers seeing increased orders improved to a reading of minus 18 for the month, from minus 22 in January.
The monthly trends survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said manufacturing reported the shift during the month as political certainty improved
This surpassed analysts’ expectations of minus 19 but is still significantly below the survey’s long-run average of minus 13 as the sector continues to come under pressure.
The survey of 318 firms reported that order books improved slightly, to their strongest positions in six months.
However, output volumes – the number of items produced – remained weak, falling for a fifth consecutive period.
Some 15 per cent of manufacturers reported total order books to be above normal, while 33 per cent said they were below normal.
Alpesh Paleja, lead economist at the CBI, said: ‘It’s probably still too early to say whether we’ve seen the end of the slowdown in the sector.’