UK manufacturing growth moves up a gear with job creation at 39-month high
The UK's manufacturing sector is growing faster than we thought. The latest figures from Markit see June's headline purchasing managers' index (PMI) revised up from an initial reading of 57 to a final estimate of 57.5.
Any number above 50 implies growth, and figures in the region we're seeing now suggest the sector is enjoying rapid expansion.
Credit Agricole's Frederik Ducrozet tweets that for UK PMIs the "sky [is] still the limit". Encouragingly, manufacturing employment has seen a 14th consecutive rise in June, with the steepest rate of rate creation registered by SMEs. Job creation in the sector is now at a 39-month high.
Manufacturing strength has prompted World First's Jeremy Cook to suggest that the data will "add fuel to the fire to those who believe that the UK economy is in a strong enough position to start normalising monetary policy via hikes in interest rates".
Analysts had been expecting to see that revisions would show manufacturing slightly weaker this month. A poll of economists forecast that headline manufacturing PMI would be downwardly revised to 56.8. HSBC analysts bucked the trend, expecting that June's stronger CBI survey, returning to just shy of the 18-year high it hit in late 2013, could see manufacturing PMI come in at 57.4.
