Office for National Statistics said that total production output decreased by 0.6% for the three months to November 2019, compared with the three months to August 2019; this was led by manufacturing output, which fell by 0.8%. The three-monthly fall in manufacturing is because of widespread weakness, with 10 of the 13 subsectors providing downward contributions; this was led by pharmaceutical products (fall of 6.2%) and transport equipment (fall of 1.6%).

Production output fell by 1.2% between October 2019 and November 2019, with manufacturing providing the largest downward contribution, falling by 1.7%. Economists had expected a 0.1% decrease.

The monthly decrease of 1.7% in manufacturing output was because of downward contributions from 10 of the 13 subsectors; led by notable falls from transport equipment (3.4%), chemicals and chemical products (4.7%) and food, beverages and tobacco (1.8%).

For the three months to November 2019, production output decreased by 1.1%, compared with the same three months to November 2018; this was led by a fall in manufacturing of 1.2%.