In an unexpected, but gratefully received, message from the
pensions minister, Steve Webb, the Government announced an intended
ground-breaking policy to protect future pensioners’ investment funds from
falling equity prices saw a rise of 8.8%.
Because of the delayed bank holiday in May (to accommodate
the longer Queens Jubilee weekend), that month had an extra working day, which
resulted in manufacturing output increasing unexpectedly by 1.2%.
The counter to this good news was that pharmaceutical
preparations and products saw a fall of 13.2% and food, drink and tobacco were
down year-on-year by 3.9%.
Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight said of
these figures: “A double dose of good news on the UK economy with industrial
production unexpectedly rising in May and the trade deficit narrowing more than
expected.”
“However, the news is not quite as good as first appears,
and there will be payback in June on the industrial production front.”
At the same time the chief economist of The British Chambers
of Commerce (BCC), David Kern, was quoted as saying: “Unusually, UK exports to
non-EU countries were higher than exports to the EU.”
He went on to add that UK exporters have “huge untapped
potential.” And that: “This shows that exporters are adjusting to global
reality, as growth in the Eurozone will continue to stagnate, and the main
opportunities for our exporters will remain outside Europe.”
No comments:
Post a Comment