British manufacturing sector continues to expand: survey

The British manufacturing sector continued to expand during September with employment surging to a 28-month peak, said a market sensitive report.

According to the report jointly issued by the financial information service company Markit and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), the Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) was at 56.7 points in September, staying in expansion territory for the sixth successive month, reported Xinhua Tuesday.

A PMI reading of 50 points or greater indicates expansion, while below 50 indicates contraction. September's reading of 56.7 showed little changes from August's two-and-a-half-year peak of 57.1.

Manufacturing production maintained the momentum of growth for the sixth consecutive month in September, with the growth rate staying close to August's 19-year high.

The manufacturing sector saw growth in both output and new order volumes. The level of new export business also rose in September, but only moderately and to the weakest extent since May.

At the same time, rising employment in the manufacturing sector helped support efforts to raise production and clear backlogs of work, said the report.

Companies reported higher demand from the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Scandinavia, Latin America, Russia and Australia, it said.

"Britain manufacturing continues to boom, adding to the flow of upbeat data which suggest that the economy is growing faster than almost anyone expected," said Rob Dobson, senior economist with Markit.

"These numbers are encouraging in respect to the rebalancing of the economy, with goods production likely to provide a major stimulus to economic growth in the third quarter," he said.

He expected the manufacturing output to expand by at least 1 percent in the third quarter of this year and possibly by as much as 1.5 percent.

"With orders surging and stock levels falling, as demand exceeded production in a growing number of companies, the outlook for output and employment remains on the upside heading towards year end," said Dobson.