Manufacturing: Key Economic Indicators

The ONS has announced it will revise UK GDP data, with growth in 2020 and 2021 being stronger than data currently suggests. These revisions will also affect data for the manufacturing industry. This page will be updated on 12 October with the revised data, but until then reports the unrevised data.

In April–June 2023, the manufacturing sector accounted for 9.4% of total UK economic output (Gross Value Added).

Manufacturing Output

Manufacturing output was down by 0.7% between June and July. 9 of the 13 subsectors negatively contributed to growth.

Manufacturing output for the three months to June 2023 grew by 1.7% compared to the three months to March 2023. Output in the three months to June 2023 was 1.8% higher than output in the same period the previous year.

Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)

In the S&P Global/CIPS PMI, a value of 50 means that there is no change compared to the previous month. Values above 50 indicate an expansion, and values below 50 a contraction.

The flash UK manufacturing PMI estimate (PDF) for September 2023 was 44.2, up from 43.0 in August 2023. The PMI has been below 50, indicating a deterioration in operating conditions, for over a year. Manufacturers reported the sharpest contraction in backlogs of work since February 2009.