EEF NW comment on PMI data

Darrell Matthews

Commenting on today’s PMI data, Darrell Matthews, North West Region Director at EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said: “Manufacturing continues to expand at a robust pace with today’s data indicating above-trend growth in production and new orders.

"A strong pick-up in job creation highlights the current strength of demand in the domestic market, while solid gains in export business also offered encouragement that production will continue to rise at a healthy clip over the coming months.

“The sector remains on track to provide another solid positive contribution to UK GDP growth in the first quarter and we forecast UK manufacturing output to increase by 2.7% over 2014 as a whole, the fastest rate of expansion in four years.

"To keep this momentum going it is essential that the Budget builds on improving sentiment across the sector to support companies’ investment decisions in the year ahead.”