Manufacturing sector grows at fastest pace for 15 months

The UK's manufacturing sector grew at the fastest pace in 15 months in December, as the impact of uncertainty about the autumn Budget and the Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack began to fade, a new survey shows.

- SION BARRY

The S&P Global UK manufacturing PMI survey, watched closely by economists, showed a reading of 50.6 in December, up from 50.2 in November.

Any reading above 50.0 indicates that activity is growing while any score below means it is contracting.

Manufacturing output increased for the third month in a row and the level of new orders for firms rose for the first time since September 2024, according to the survey.

Some businesses benefited from conditions improving at the turn of the year having come under pressure from challenges in parts of the market. This includes those across the supply chain affected by production shutdowns at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) after the British carmaker was impacted by a major cyber attack at the end of August.

The incident was linked to a drop in overall motor manufacturing during September.