Has this been "another false dawn for factories", asks David Smith in The Sunday Times. There have been several occasions in recent years when a rise in UK manufacturing output did not in fact herald the start of a sustained upswing. George Osborne's widely trumpeted "march of the makers" a few years ago turned out to be a "gentle stroll". An upturn in 2014 faltered too. Now the worry is that the post-Brexit surge could be petering out. In the first quarter manufacturing output expanded by a mere 0.2%, and the PMI survey tracking activity in the sector slipped to a 17-month low in April. Overall output is still only just back to pre-crisis levels.
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