Manufacturers report robust order books

Manufacturing firms have said their order books remained strong in August while expectations for selling prices ticked up, new figures reveal.

According to the CBI’s latest monthly Industrial Trends Survey, export order books were also strong.

The firming in export orders relative to the previous month reflected rising orders in 10 of the 17 manufacturing sub-sectors, led by mechanical engineering and aerospace.

Output growth remained strong and broad based and is expected to remain so over the next quarter.  Meanwhile, firms’ expectations for output price inflation picked up again after having eased briefly. However, they remained lower than in the first half of 2017.

Stocks were considered to be just above adequate levels, after dipping below in July, but remained below the long-run average.

Anna Leach, CBI head of economic intelligence, said: “There are further signs that exporters are feeling the benefit from the lower pound in this month’s figures, and output growth is expected to power on over the coming quarter.

“But after a brief pause last month, expectations for selling prices have rebounded, indicating that the squeeze on consumers is set to persist. We expect CPI (Consumer Price Index) to top out at around 3% towards the end of this year and remain close to that level during 2018, as the effect of the weak pound continues to feed through.”