As post-Brexit predictions for the UK manufacturing sector painted a woeful picture, new figures from the Markit/CIPS manufacturing survey reveal a very different story.
The survey, which measures activity in factories, jumped from a 41-month low of 48.3 in July immediately following the referendum vote, to a 10-month high of 53.3 in August, sparking a huge jump in the pound. Rather than July’s reports that British businesses expected economic growth to grind to a half over the next three months, the weaker pound following the vote to leave the European Union (EU) has shown to have boosted new export business and helped to increase manufacturing output to its highest level since November 2015.
