Britain’s manufacturing sector is much larger than official figures suggest, according to a report for the government that underscores the broad impact on the economy of high tariff barriers with the EU. A steep decline in car production over the last year related to Brexit uncertainty and an escalation of Donald Trump’s trade war with China have pushed the manufacturing sector into recession. In April the UK economy shrank by 0.4% largely in response to a sharp decline in manufacturing output. Ministers are expected to use the report as a more up-to-date guide to inform the government’s industrial strategy. “We haven’t put a figure on the size of the manufacturing sector in our report but it is closer to 15%, which is still much larger than the current official figure,” he said.

Source: The Guardian June 11, 2019 22:52 UTC