Manufacturing downturn 'slowing'

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the more successful parts of the sector

The pace of the downturn in the manufacturing sector slowed by an unexpectedly large amount in April.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) rose to 42.9 in April from 39.5 in March.

Any figure below 50 indicates a contraction in the sector. It is the index's thirteenth month below 50.

More than one-third of the companies in the survey reported that they had made job losses.

"Although April saw some reprieve for the UK manufacturing sector, we are still far away from a turnaround and the industry is firmly embedded in the trenches of the recession," said Roy Aycliffe from the CIPS.

The data supports those who believe that the 1.9% contraction in the UK economy in the first three months of 2009 was the worst we will see in the current recession.

"We are off the bottom and I think that is reasonable given that we have had aggressive interest rate cuts [and] weaker sterling," said Alan Clarke, an economist at BNP Paribas.

"All this is signalling is that the pace of contraction around the start of the year is probably going to slow towards the middle of this year."