Skip to main content

Blog

EEF blog

Insights into UK manufacturing

Week in Review - 11th June, 2010

Felicity Burch June 11, 2010 12:43

↑ BRC/KPMG Retail Monitor	Total sales values were up 3% in May compared with like for like sales one year a go. Retail sales were also up, by 0.8%. Much of the growth came from clothing and footwear; outdoor DIY; and leisure, all of which benefited from the sunny weather. Big-ticket furnishing and home wares items struggled in the face of some continued consumer uncertainty around job and income prospects.
↓ UK Trade	Figures from the ONS showed the trade deficit has widened from £7.259bn in March to £7.279bn in April, despite expectations that the deficit would narrow. Exports fell 0.6% and imports fell by 0.4% on the month.
↔ MPC Announcement	Once again interest rates remained at 0.5% and the size of the asset purchase programme was held at £200bn. The Bank of England is unlikely to tighten monetary policy in the coming months, though increasing expectations of inflation may become an issue.
↓ Index of Production	Total production and manufacturing production were both down by 0.4% on last month. However, year on year growth rates remain strong, with manufacturing output 3.4% higher than in April 2009.
↑ BoE inflation attitudes survey	Median expectations for the rate of inflation rose from 2.5% in the last quarter, to 3.3%. This will be a concern for the Bank of England, especially as 66% of respondents said interest rates should rise rather than allow prices to rise.
The week ahead Tue 15th: Consumer Price Indices Wed 16th: Labour Market Statistics Thu 17th: Retail Sales Fri 18th: Public Sector Finances

Tags: bank of england, economic data, economy, interest rates, monetary policy, week in review

Related posts

Week in review - 4th June, 2010 ↔ PMI Manufacturing The manufacturing PMI remained at 58.0 in May, still at its...Week in Review - 18th June, 2010 ↓ Consumer Price Indices The CPI inflation rate fell slightly to 3.4%. RPI annu...Week in Review - 16th July, 2010 ↔ GDP Q1 Figures for GDP showed an increase of 0.3% in 2010q1. This is unrevise...

Disclaimer
This is an informal blog about manufacturing and the economy written by EEF's policy and representation staff. While it is written from an EEF perspective, contributions should not be taken as formal statements of EEF policy, unless stated otherwise. Nor does it cover all the issues on which we campaign - you can check these out in more detail at our main site.

We welcome and encourage comments, but we reserve the right to remove any that are offensive or irrelevant. We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Subscribe to our blog

Browse by category