Growth figures best since 1995

Manufacturers said they expect growth to continue at a robust pace over the coming three months
22 November 2013

The best growth figures in 18 years provided more evidence of a sustained recovery in Britain's manufacturing sector today .

The CBI's survey of nearly 350 factory bosses found that total order books and output growth were the highest recorded since 1995.

Manufacturers also told the business lobby group that they expect growth to continue at a robust pace over the coming three months.

Stephen Gifford, the CBI's director of economics, said: "This new evidence shows encouraging signs of a broadening and deepening recovery in the manufacturing sector.

"Manufacturers finally seem to be feeling the benefit of growing confidence and spending within the UK and globally."

The key finding of the survey showed that a positive balance of 11% of firms believed order books were above normal in November, helped by signs of a continued recovery among exporters.

The rise in output growth was broad-based, with all but one of 15 sub-sectors - electrical engineering - reporting growth.

Despite the progress, Mr Gifford said challenges remain for UK manufacturers.

He added: "UK exporters need Government support to break into high-growth export markets to reduce their vulnerability to any further eurozone flare-ups."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT