OIL and gas extraction rebounded by 0.5 per cent in July, helping broader UK industrial production post its sharpest monthly rise since February, official figures have shown.
The figures, published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, showed UK industrial production, which includes manufacturing, mining and quarrying, oil and gas extraction, and electricity, gas and water supply, rose by 0.5 per cent month-on-month on a seasonally-adjusted basis in July. The City had forecast a 0.2 per cent increase.
The rise in oil and gas extraction in July followed a 1.3 per cent drop in June and a 2.1 per cent rise in May.
Manufacturing output rose 0.3 per cent in July, in line with forecasts.
However, separate figures published yesterday by the ONS showed the UK's deficit on trade in goods with the rest of the world widened to £10.2 billion in July from £9.41bn in June. The July deficit was much wider than the £9.1bn forecast by economists. It was the UK's biggest monthly global goods trade deficit since the all-time high of £10.4bn in April 2012.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight, said: "(It is) mixed overall news on the UK economy for July, with a slightly larger-than-expected increase in industrial production countered by a larger-than-expected trade deficit. However, the underlying trend in manufacturing looks softer compared to earlier in the year despite the 0.5 per cent rise in industrial production in July."
He added: "UK economic growth is currently dependent on robust domestic demand, and the July trade data fuel suspicion that will remain the case in the near term at least, with heightened geopolitical tensions hampering global growth prospects and the eurozone likely to see only slowly-improving domestic demand at best."
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, an independent think-tank, yesterday estimated UK gross domestic product in the June to August period was 0.6 per cent higher than in the preceding three months.
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