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A decline in the manufacturing sector is easing even though the wider economy has come under further pressure, according to the main industry body. In its latest industrial trends survey,
the CBI found that output in the three months to November fell at its slowest pace since September last year. A net balance of -6 per cent of respondents said that output rose, an
improvement on -8 per cent last month. Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “The CBI’s survey suggests that manufacturing output has stabilised at a level of
about 7 per cent below its pre-Covid peak. It is encouraging that the second lockdown appears to have had a minimal impact on demand, production and supply chains.” Output fell in nine of
seventeen sectors, with aerospace registering the worst performance because of continuing troubles in the airline industry. Across the manufacturing sector new orders were down from -34 per
cent to -40 per cent. Export orders fell from -46 per cent to -51 per cent. Advertisement Economists had expected a boost in anticipation that overseas customers would increase stockpiling
in case of a no-deal Brexit. Anna Leach, deputy chief economist at the CBI, said: “Firms have done all they can to adapt their operations to the current conditions but pressure remains
intense.”