Britain's manufacturing activities grow at 7 month high

British manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI), a gauge of the industry activities, climbed to 57.5 in June from 57.0 in May, exceeding the market estimation consensus of 56.8, announced Markit on Tuesday.
Manufacturing output increased for the 16th successive month in June, and the average index reading during the second quarter is the highest since the first quarter of 2011, said the London-based survey compiler.
The level of incoming new business increased at the fastest pace since last November and to one of the greatest extents since the survey began in 1992, said Markit.
Manufacturing employment increased for the 14th consecutive month in June, with the strongest rate of job creation was registered by small and medium enterprises, data showed.
Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said: "UK manufacturing continued to flourish in June, rounding off one of the best quarters for the sector over the past two decades."
Markit expects official manufacturing production to have expanded in the second quarter at a pace above the 1.5 percent registered in the first quarter.
Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, commented in a note: "The overall expansion in the sector appears to be broad-based, while rising new orders and optimism amongst firms should help to sustain the current renaissance in business investment and encourage firms to take on more staff."
The London-based economic think-tank expects British GDP to grow at around 1 percent in the second quarter, which would be the highest rate since 2007.
Samuel Tombs, senior UK Economist at Capital Economics, said in his analysis piece: "Given the experience of past recoveries and the strong growth in business investment seen recently, we expect a decent recovery in productivity to get going in the second half of this year."