Akhir 05 , 1432 H. / March 10, 2011 -- Britain's manufacturing sector rebounded further in January, official figures showed Thursday, ahead of a keenly awaited interest rate decision from the Bank of England, according to AP. Though most analysts think the benchmark rate will remain unchanged at the record low of 0.5 percent, a rate hike would not be completely unexpected. Three of the nine rate-setters voted last month to raise borrowing costs to tame inflation, which is running at double the official 2 percent target. The manufacturing figures from the Office for National Statistics could impact on the decision due at midday. They showed manufacturing output up 1 percent in January from the previous month. That increase pushed the annual rate of growth up to 6.8 percent, its fastest in 16 years. The wider measure of industrial production, which also includes output from mining and the oil and gas sector, rose by 0.5 percent on a monthly basis for a 4.4 percent annual gain. Despite the recovery in the industrial sector, Britain's economy still shrank by 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter. Analysts noted that manufacturing output is still 9 percent below its peak before an 18-month recession in 2008-2009. «The strong manufacturing resurgence on its own, though, will not be enough to offset the weaknesses developing on the consumer side of the economy,» said Samuel Tombs, U.K. economist at Capital Economics. «After all, manufacturing still only accounts for 13 percent of GDP and so can only make a modest contribution to the overall recovery even at the best of times.»
