The U.K. manufacturing sector’s slide into negative territory might be coming to an end, a quarterly EEF manufacturing outlook survey suggested Monday.
Nonetheless, the manufacturers’ organization downgraded its GDP outlook and manufacturing growth forecast.
Manufacturing output edged up after hitting its weakest point in six years in the final quarter of 2015, the survey showed.
Total orders remained negative in the first quarter, but were similarly up from a six-year low, suggesting that they may have started to stabilize.
“The slide is bottoming out, but manufacturing is still in negative territory and faces a precarious climb back up amidst a storm of real uncertainty,” Lee Hopley, chief economist at EEF, said.
“In a two-speed scenario, the fact that even those sectors in the fast lane are not relaxed about the global outlook probably says it all,” Hopley added.
The agency forecast the economy to grow 1.9 percent this year instead of 2.1 percent estimated initially. Manufacturing growth forecast was lowered to 0.6 percent from 0.8 percent.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com