UK manufacturing output fell by 0.2% month-on-month in April, after jumping by 1.1% in March, according to official figures.

In spite of the fall, revealed in figures published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, manufacturing output in the February to April period was up 0.5% on the preceding three months. This was a big improvement on the 0.3% quarter-on-quarter fall in manufacturing output in the opening three months of this year.

However, manufacturing output in April was down 0.5% on a year earlier.

Broader industrial production, which includes mining and quarrying, oil and gas extraction, and electricity, gas and water supply as well as manufacturing output, rose by 0.1% month-on-month in April. Industrial production in April was down 0.6% on a year earlier.

Samuel Tombs, UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said the figures "suggested that a modest industrial recovery is getting under way", but questioned how long this would last.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimated yesterday that UK gross domestic product in the March to May period had been up 0.6% on the preceding three months.

But the NIESR, which views the UK as being in depression, declared: "We do not expect output to pass its peak in early 2008 until 2015."