Survey indicates potential recession for UK manufacturers

This assessment by Seamus Nevin comes as Make UK and BDO LLP reveal the results of their Q3 Manufacturing Outlook survey, which garnered opinions from 292 companies.

The Q3 Manufacturing Outlook survey follows PMI data released earlier this week and shows all indicators have weakened significantly, with investment and domestic orders straying into negative territory.

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According to Make UK, the survey also shows that export orders are down despite prices falling, indicating that overseas customers are not buying British goods even though they are six per cent cheaper than this time last year.

Nevin said: “Industry is facing a perfect storm of factors, compounded by a hard Brexit which could not be coming at a worse possible time. In normal circumstances a global slowdown on its own would be enough, but add trade wars and the biggest shock to our economy since the War and there seems little doubt that, barring a remarkable turnaround, the sector may be heading for recession.”