The UK’s manufacturing sector expanded at a slower pace last month on the back of rising material costs and staff shortages.
- The IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) posted a reading of 57.1 in September, down from 60.3 in August.
- Manufacturing production expanded for the 16th consecutive month in September. But, the pace of expansion slowed for the fourth month in a row and to its weakest since February 2021.
- Growth eased across the consumer, intermediate, and investment goods sectors. Figures categorized by company size signaled that upturns at medium and large-scale businesses were offset by a continued decline among small firms.
- Rob Dobson, director at IHS Markit stated that September PMI reveals the risk of the UK worsening towards stagflation as the growth of manufacturing output and new orders cooled down sharply.
The weaker growth of new business also hampered efforts to increase output further during September. New orders increased at the weakest rate since February, as intakes from domestic customers increased at a slower rate.
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Source: IHS Markit
