Home demand aids manufacturing growth
29 August 2012
UK manufacturers were grateful to continued strong demand at home as activity rose in February, according to the latest purchasing managers' index (PMI).
The overall PMI - a composite indicator of sector conditions from CIPS and NTC Research in which 50 indicates no change on the previous month - stayed at 51.8, the same as in January.
Another slight fall in exports, owing to the strength of sterling against the dollar, failed to slow the new orders index, which rose to 53.
Companies increased their...