The following is an unedited transcript of the news release from the UK Office for National Statistics.


In the three months to February, the seasonally adjusted chained volume index for the output of the production industries remained unchanged compared with the previous three months. Between January and February output of the manufacturing industries rose by 0.4%, note that monthly growth rates are volatile.

There were widespread increases across manufacturing. There were no significant increases but the largest non-significant rise was in the food, drink and tobacco industries, where output increased by 0.5 per cent. There were no significant decreases. In the latest three months, manufacturing output increased by 0.3 percent. Output of the electricity, gas and water supply industries increased by 0.3 per cent but mining and quarrying output decreased by 3.0 per cent, compared with the previous three months.

Mining and quarrying

In the latest three months, mining and quarrying output fell by 3.0 percent compared with the previous three months and was 1.9 per cent lower than the same period a year ago. Between January and February, mining and quarrying output decreased by 1.2 per cent with falls in oil and gas production.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing output in the latest three months rose by 0.3 per cent compared with the previous three months. There were significant increases in output of 2.3 per cent in the transport equipment industries and 2.0 per cent in the chemicals and man-made fibres industries. There was a significant decrease in output of 1.1 per cent in the paper, printing and publishing industries. Manufacturing output in the latest three months was 0.9 per cent higher than the same period a year ago.

Electricity, gas and water supply

Output of the electricity, gas and water supply industries in the latest three months rose by 0.3 per cent compared with the previous three months. Between January and February, energy supply output increased by 0.7 per cent. In the latest three months, output in this sector was 2.8 per cent higher compared with the same period a year ago.

Market sectors

In the latest three months, output of the consumer durable goods industries rose by 1.3 per cent compared with the previous three months but was 0.5 per cent lower than the same period a year ago. Output in the consumer non-durable goods industries fell by 0.2 per cent in the latest three months compared with the previous three months and was 1.2 per cent lower than the same period a year ago.

In the latest three months, output of the capital goods industries rose by 0.8 per cent compared with the previous three months and was 3.1 per cent higher than the same period a year ago.
Output in the intermediate goods and energy industries fell by 0.4 per cent in the latest three months compared with the previous three months but was 1.0 per cent higher than the same period a year ago.

Revisions

This release conforms to the standard revisions policy for National Accounts. In this release the period open for revision is January 2008 only. Table IOP5R shows the revisions to the estimates previously published on 10 March 2008. Since last month a number of late responses have been received to the Monthly Production Inquiry. The impact of these late data, when combined with revisions caused by seasonal adjustment factors being re-estimated, is small this month and the growth rate for the Index of Production for January is unrevised at -0.1 per cent.


Available at:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/iop0408.pdf