Details from the December 2016 UK industrial, manufacturing and construction output data report 10 February 2017

  • Prior 2.1%

  • 4.3% vs 3.2% exp y/y. Prior 2.0%
  • Manufacturing 2.1% vs 0.5% exp m/m. Prior 1.3%
  • 4.0% vs 1.8% exp y/y. Prior 1.2%
  • Construction output 1.8% vs 1.0% exp m/m. Prior -0.2%
  • 0.6% vs -0.5% exp y/y. Prior 1.5%

Very strong numbers indeed. I'm not sure why expectations were so low considering the Dec PMI's we had last month?

Unfortunately the ONS say that the numbers won't tack anything on to the Q4 GDP revision. They add that manufacturing was boosted by the Pharma sector, which is notoriously volatile.

These construction numbers are equally as volatile so they only really matter when we see a decent trend in them.

Add these to the trade numbers and you give the pound a reason to move higher. GBPUSD traded up to 1.2519, slap on intraday resistance.

UK industrial and manufacturing production y/y