U.K. industrial production beats expectations, surges to 2.1 pct in December

Data released by Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Friday that U.K. industrial production growth exceeded economists' expectations in December. U.K.'s industrial output climbed 1.1 percent month-on-month in December, beating forecasts for a 0.2 percent increase.

Likewise, manufacturing output expanded 2.1 percent compared to the 0.5 percent growth economists had forecast. On a yearly basis, industrial and manufacturing output gained 4.3 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Economists had forecast industrial output to grow 3.2 percent and manufacturing to rise 1.7 percent.

While November’s manufacturing gain had been disproportionately skewed towards an erratic surge in pharmaceutical product output, December’s data showed a more balanced performance.  The manufacturing output rise in December was broad-based, with expansion in 9 out of 13 manufacturing sub-sectors.

With the manufacturing PMI in December hitting its highest level since June 2014 and easing only marginally in January, the strength seen in surveys is finally being borne out in the ‘hard’ official data.