British manufacturers experienced the steepest decline in export demand this month since December 2020, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reported on
Monday. This drop comes as the UK continues to face challenges in global trade following its departure from the European Union's single market.
According to the CBI's monthly industrial trends survey, the export order balance plunged to -44 in September, down from -22 in August. The overall order book also fell sharply to a 10-month low of -35, compared to -22 in August, defying economists' expectations from a Reuters poll, which predicted it would remain steady.
CBI economist Ben Jones described the results as "uniformly disappointing" for the manufacturing sector. He noted that output had declined over the past quarter, order books had worsened, and manufacturers anticipated further softening of activity in the remaining months of 2024.
These weak export figures align with a continued contraction in eurozone manufacturing activity, as reflected in September's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data. However, the UK’s own manufacturing PMI still indicated expanding activity during the same period.
The CBI data also highlighted a significant decline in factory output during the third quarter, with expectations of a smaller yet continued downturn in the final quarter of this year. Photo by Martyn Davies / GSK Factory / CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia commons.
