Some good news: British industry may not be growing again yet, but at least its rate of decline is slowing down.

In June manufacturing activity slackened at its lowest rate for a year, according to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)’s Purchasing Managers' Index, which keeps track of new orders.
 

And, according to the CIPS’s output index, production actually increased, for the first time in 15 months.
 
All this was taken by CIPS as signs that manufacturing may be coming out of recession – welcome news after the 2.4% contraction in GDP in the first quarter, and continuing announcements of mass layoffs by big employers. The latest is Lloyds Banking Group, which is cutting a further 2,100 jobs – bringing the total up to 7,000 since January.

The headline manufacturing PMI measure rose to 47.0 from 45.4 in May. That was the fourth consecutive month of improvement in the index, though any figure below 50 still represents contraction.

So don’t crack open the champagne just yet.

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