Saturday 26 July 2008

UK manufacturing already in recession

UK GDP might be slowing but some sectors are heading downwards more quickly than others.

The perennial Cinderella of the UK economy is doing particularly badly. The UK manufacturing sector shrank during the second quarter of 2008. The sector is now in its second major recession this decade.

Despite the credit crunch, business services and finance grow by around 2 percent year-on-year. However, the growth rate is significantly lower than the typical 5 percent annual growth rates recorded over the last 10 or so years.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A manufacturing recession - who cares. The sector is now so small that it doesn't really matter any more.

Anonymous said...

When the 20% of the economy which has depended on Financial Disservices has contracted drastically with massive job and tax losses...

...and when other services related to the housing bubble have contracted too...

...the small size of the manufacturing sector and its diminished potential to contribute to foreign currency earnings will seem much more significant...

...especially if the pound slides further against the Euro making the German and other European cars we all love more expensive, and prices for our internal Japanese automotive production etc. are pushed up simply because they can be.

B. in C.

Anonymous said...

You mean we can't become wealthy selling houses and coffee to each other? ..who would have thunk it!