Details form the April 2017 UK Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI report 2 May 2017
Prior 54.2
New orders 60.7 vs 56.1 prior
Wow, that's a great number, taking it to the highest for over 3 years.
GBPUSD naturally jumps and trades up to 1.2909 from around 1.2880.
Markit note that domestic orders are the driver, though export orders increased well too. The strongest sectors were investment goods and intermediate goods. That's all good news even with cost pressures increasing, though not as steeply as previously.
"The UK manufacturing PMI sprung back to a three year high in April after a brief blip in March. Spring has ushered in green shoots of growth with April marking the ninth consecutive increase in manufacturing employment. The calling of a snap election has failed to dampen the spirits of industry with output growing at the fastest rate in three months.
While the major political parties debate how best to leave Europe, British manufacturers have continued to increase their exports to the continent. A weaker pound has kept British products competitive on the world stage and encouraged the twelfth successive rise in manufacturing exports." said Duncan Brock at CIPS.
Although manufacturing is only 12-15% of GDP, that's not a bad start to the quarter, which if replicated across other sectors, could point to some decent growth.
UK manufacturing PMI
