Investing.com - U.K. Manufacturing activity expanded at the slowest rate in three months in February, as output growth eased, industry data showed on Wednesday.
Market research group Markit said that its U.K. manufacturing PMI fell to a seasonally adjusted 54.6 last month from a reading of 55.9 in January. Analysts had expected the index to inch down to 55.6 in February.
On the index, a reading above 50.0 indicates industry expansion, below indicates contraction.
Companies indicated that growth of new business from the domestic market slowed, but noted that this was partly offset by a sharp acceleration in the rate of increase in new export business.
Supply-chain disruption alongside the cost impact of the weak sterling exchange rate led to a further sharp rise in purchase prices. Input cost inflation eased from January’s record high, but remained among the fastest seen during the survey history.
Commenting on the report, Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compiler Markit, said, “The survey is signalling quarterly manufacturing output growth close to the 1.5% mark so far in the opening quarter which, if achieved, would be one of the best performances over the past seven years."
GBP/USD was trading at 1.2371 from around 1.2384 ahead of the release of the data, while EUR/GBP was at 0.8518 from 0.8515 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were broadly higher. London’s FTSE 100 ticked up 0.8%, the EURO STOXX 50 rose 1.3%, France's CAC 40 added 1.3%, while Germany's DAX rallied 1.3%.