Britain'S Manufacturing Output Fell The Biggest Decline In 7 Years In December 2019.

According to the financial times and iNews reports, the Purchasing Managers'Index (PMI) of IHS Markit/CIPS2019 in December declined again from 48.9 in November to 47.5, a reading of less than 50 for eighth consecutive months, indicating that most production activities continued to deteriorate. At the end of November, British manufacturing industry was shrinking at the fastest rate in 2012.

Duncan Brock, group director of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) group, said that with the global economic downturn and Britain's uncertainty over Europe, investment and customer confidence continued to be affected. Rob Dobson, chairman of IHS Markit, said that the demand for new orders was reduced and the consumption of goods previously allocated to Europe was still reduced, which led to a slight increase in consumer goods production, but it still could not offset the decline in the output of other products in the manufacturing sector.

Howard Archer, Principal Consultant of EY Item Club, an economic forecasting agency, said that in 2019, the UK manufacturing industry was affected by uncertainties such as euro, domestic politics and global economic and trade factors, which led to a reduction in demand at home and abroad, and added that even if there was still a crisis in the industry, the British manufacturers might face the problem of the EU enterprises' shift to the supply chain. According to the Bank of England survey, after the victory of the conservative party, the UK's uncertainty over Europe dropped from 55% to 49%, and manufacturing activity is expected to remain stable in the first quarter of 2020.