UK leather manufacturing decline steepens
Unsurprisingly, the UK leather and footwear sectors were among those that suffered the biggest declines in output during the first three months of 2004.
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), during the quarter January-March, output of the textiles, leather and clothing sectors combined was down 2.9% compared the previous three months, and 4.2% down on the year-previous.
Likewise, the March output index for the UK leathermaking sector was down to 68.1 index points from 72.2 points the month before (where output on January 1 1995 represents an index of 100). Leather goods manufacturing was up one index point to 74.7 while the output of footwear was down 1.3 index points to 49.7.
The figures were recorded against a surprise 0.3% fall in overall UK manufacturing output during March. Following a series of bouyant industry surveys, analysts had been expecting 0.5% rise.
