UK PMI hits highest point since March ‘08

The UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) reached 50.8 in July, the first time it has registered a level above the neutral mark of 50 since March 2008.

The CIPS/Markit index is calculated using data collected on new orders, production, employment, supplier performance and stocks of purchases. In July, the index showed manufacturing production had climbed for the second successive month, to its greatest extent since December 2007. "The manufacturing sector has clearly pulled out of the nosedive it was in earlier this year and is no longer plummeting," says David Noble, CEO at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply. "Firms continued to slash inventories so severely that the downturn has been much deeper than might have been ...