Economic data disappoints as UK recovery fears grow

UK manufacturing performance took an unexpected knock in April according to official data, adding to fears Britain's economic recovery is much weaker than previously thought.

Britain's factories had been one of the main drivers of growth in Q1 but the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data suggested Q2 started weakly with output in April down 0.4% month-on-month. Analysts had forecast a 0.5% rise and a jump of 2.2% in March. Transport, food, drink, tobacco and electrical sub-sectors were the biggest drags on performance, according to the ONS. Today's disappointing figures echo poor import and export data also released this week by the ONS. It showed Britain's trade in goods stood at £7.3bn in April, slightly worse than the market expectation of a ...