UK industry production in freefall
It has been revealed that the year-on-year fall in UK industrial production was a significant 12.5% in February 2009. This is the 12th straight month of industry production decline and the longest slump since the recession experienced back in the 1980s. The fall in itself is the largest since records began over 40 years ago and while there have been mixed reports over the last few days regarding the UK economy this report would appear to put a spanner in the works of a potential short term recovery.
The month on month fall was a more palatable 1% although analysts have calculated the figures would translate into an approximate 1.6% shrinkage in the UK economy during the first three months of 2009. While the fall was dominated by the worsening situation in the UK car market there is no doubt that industrial production on the whole has fallen substantially year-on-year for some time. The slashing of UK base rates to the current level of 0.5% has done nothing to assist a recovery as yet although recent signs of liquidity creeping back into the market are encouraging.
Despite constant denials by the UK government, the UK economy still appears to be one of the weakest in the developed world and is unlikely to be in the first batch of economies to bounce when the recovery finally appears.
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