UK manufacturing output beats estimates
Not too punchy a figure, but better than had been expected.
UK manufacturing production rose by 0.4 per cent in Janaury, say the economists at the Office for National Statistics. That's slightly higher than an anticipated 0.3 per cent rise.
Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg, says that's the strongest annual growth in around three years.
More positive news. December's growth figure has been revised up, from 0.3 per cent to 0.4 per cent.
Industrial production numbers are less impressive. Output rose by just 0.1 per cent in January – half what was expected.
The release suggested that "the severe weather conditions across the North Sea hampered production during January and was therefore a contributing factor to the reported decrease in output compared to the previous month and to the same month a year ago."
That's one of today's (limited) selection of data releases out of the way, without any real market reaction. The only other big economic event we have lined up is US wholesale inventories, due at 2.00pm.