Mubasher: UK industrial production growth eased more than expected in February 2018 amid a significant decline in manufacturing sector’s activity.
Total industrial production grew by a monthly rate of 0.1% last month, compared with a rise of 1.3% in January 2018, data by the National Office for Statistics (ONS) showed on Wednesday.
These figures came well below economists’ forecasts of a slighter slowdown towards 0.4%.
Meanwhile, manufacturing output shrunk unexpectedly by 0.2% month-on-month, marking the first decrease since March 2017, but rose by 2.5% on an annual basis.
On the other hand, energy supply provided the largest upward contributor with an increase of 3.7% during the second month of 2018, offsetting declines in other sectors.
By 09:43 am GMT, the GBP/USD pair climbed 0.18% to $1.4201.