Investing.com - Manufacturing production in the U.K. jumped forward in April, coming in above forecasts and bolstering optimism about the country’s economic outlook, official data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the U.K. Office for National Statistics said that manufacturing production increased by a seasonally adjusted 2.3% in April, better than expectations for a rise of 0.1% and following a gain of 0.1% a month earlier.
On an annualized basis, manufacturing production rose at rate of 0.8%, better than forecasts for a 1.5% decrease and after dropping at a rate of 1.9% in March.
The report also showed that industrial production increased by a seasonally adjusted 2.0%, above forecasts for no change and following a gain of 0.3% in the preceding month.
Year-on-year, industrial production increased 1.6% in April, better than expectations of a 0.4% drop and after the 0.2% decline registered in March.
Immediately after the report, GBP/USD was at 1.4560 from around 1.4531 ahead of the announcement, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7805 from 0.7826 earlier.
European stocks were trading lower. London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.14%, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.74%, France's CAC 40 traded down 0.54%, while Germany's DAX shed 0.60%.