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Yorkshire keeps top spot for rise in business activity
YORKSHIRE and the Humber remained the UK’s fastest-growing region for private sector business activity in December, according to a survey of purchasing managers by Lloyds TSB and Markit.
Private sector manufacturing and service firms in the region reported higher business activity for the fourth successive month in December, with a reading of 57.2, up from 54.2 in November.
A reading above 50 means growth on the purchasing managers’ index (PMI).
Martyn Kendrick, area director for Lloyds TSB Commercial in Yorkshire, said: “For the second month running, Yorkshire and Humber scored the highest activity index reading of all 12 UK regions, with the pace of growth the fastest since March, largely the result of a pickup in the service sector.
“Yorkshire and Humber was also the only UK region to record falling average input prices. However, new business growth remained slower than the expansion of total business activity, and firms reported a further steep drop in backlogs.”
The region was third placed in terms of new business growth, with services compensating for declining orders in manufacturing.
The PMI showed volumes of outstanding work continued to fall – reinforcing national trends which suggest firms are eating into order backlogs. These have fallen for every month since February 2011, said Lloyds/Markit. In fact, order backlogs shrank at their fastest rate in three months, which the survey said reflected the “downward trend” in manufacturing.
The fall in input prices in Yorkshire was described as “slight”, with input prices continuing to rise for services firms, but falling sharply for manufacturers.
Prices charged by firms across Yorkshire fell for the third month running, although only “fractionally”.
Nationally, the survey showed private sector business activity rose across all nine English regions during December.
The UK business activity average was 53.2, up from 51.1 a month earlier.
John Maltby, group director at Lloyds TSB Commercial, said: “While the latest survey shows that businesses are moving in the right direction across the English regions, the uncertain global economic outlook remains a drag on both business and consumer spending.”
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