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(Adds data on Bank of England loans and real estate prices nationwide)
By Andy Bruce and William Schomberg
LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) – British factories lost some of their strength last month, as households slowed their lending before the deadline for leaving the European Union, data reported Wednesday.
The IHS Markit / CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index fell to 53.1 in April from 55.1 in March, its highest level in 13 months, broadly in line with the average forecast from the survey. Reuters to economists.
Exports have fallen to one of the fastest rates recorded over the past five years, under the effect of the slowdown in the global economy.
Uncertainty surrounding Britain's exit conditions from the European Union, originally scheduled for March 29, had already prompted factories to source parts and materials at the fastest pace of 27 years. PMI surveys.
The Bank of England's March data, also released on Wednesday, highlighted consumer cautiousness, whose spending helped offset weakness elsewhere in the UK economy.
Lenders have approved the smallest number of mortgages since December 2017 before the anticipated Brexit date, and consumer credit growth has slowed to its lowest point in more than four years.
However, there are signs that the slowdown in the UK property market may have bottomed out. The Nationwide Building Society said real estate price growth had accelerated to 0.9 percent a year in April, its highest level since November, but much slower than the growth of the economy. 39, about 5% at the time of the 2016 Brexit referendum.
With the Brexit deadline now being extended to October 31st, the plant storage rate has slowed in April, even though it has continued to boost UK production in the context of a slowdown. more general manufacturing in Europe.
"The slowdown is less severe than expected," said economist Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics.
One in five manufacturers reported Brexit-related stockpiling continued to increase production in April.
The export orders indicator for the study fell to its lowest level since August 2018 and at its second-lowest level since October 2014. Although global demand for goods has slowed sharply In the last six months, IHS Markit said the uncertainty of Brexit was the main factor of British factories in April.
"It has also been reported that foreign customers now had the intention of reorienting their UK supply chains before Brexit," said Rob Dobson, director of IHS Markit, the company that compiles the data.
Last week, a quarterly survey conducted by the Confederation of British Industries from manufacturers showed the largest decline in export orders since the bottom of the 2009 financial crisis.
Andrew Wishart, Capital Economics consulting firm, expects the UK manufacturing PMI to fall further, moving closer to a weak euro area manufacturing PMI.
"The result is that a snow trail due to Brexit preparations in the sector will weigh on GDP in the second quarter," he said.
Bank of England officials preparing the new economic forecasts to be released on Thursday are likely to note the producer price pressures that have emerged in the latest PMI, echoing the European Commission's investigations into companies published on Monday.
The factories have increased their selling prices to the slowest pace since July 2016 and their material and energy costs have increased to the second slowest pace of May 2016, the PMI revealed. (Edited by Janet Lawrence)
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