Investing.com - Manufacturing production in the U.K. barely bounced back in March, coming in under forecasts, after a large decline in the prior month, dampening optimism over 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 0.1% in March, worse than expectations for a rise of 0.3% and following a decline of 0.9% a month earlier, that was revised down from an initial read of a 1.1% drop.
On an annualized basis, manufacturing production fell at rate of 1.9%, in line with forecasts, after dropping at a rate of 1.6% in February, which was initially tallied as a 1.8% decline.
The report also showed that industrial production increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.3%, also missing forecasts for a gain of 0.5% and following a decline of 0.2% in the preceding month, that was revised from an initial read of 0.3%.
Year-on-year, industrial production decreased 0.2% in March, better than expectations of a 0.4% drop and after the 0.1% gain registered in February, revised from an initial drop of 0.5%.
Immediately after the report, GBP/USD was at 1.4411 from around 1.4423 ahead of the announcement, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7902 from 0.7896 earlier.
European stocks were trading lower. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.40%, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.94%, France's CAC 40 traded down 1.13%, while Germany's DAX shed 0.65%.