UK Manufacturing Falls Nearly 1% in 1st Post-Brexit Month

The United Kingdom's manufacturing was the only sector to contract from June 2016 after Brexit, falling by 0.9% with the largest contribution from pharmaceuticals, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United Kingdom's manufacturing output contracted almost 1 percent in the month following June's Brexit referendum, the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed on Wednesday.

"Manufacturing was the only sector to contract from June 2016, falling by 0.9% with the largest contribution from pharmaceuticals," the ONS said in a summary after releasing UK index of production figures for July 2016.

Overall production, however, was 0.1 percent up compared to June and 2.1 percent in year-on-year terms.

The July drop was in excess of expectations. Ahead of the ONS release, economists reportedly expected the drop to be around 0.4 percent.

In year-on-year terms, manufacturing increased just 0.8 percent compared to July 2015.

Manufacturing was not buoyed by a falling UK pound, which plunged around 10 percent against the dollar in the wake of the referendum, falling from $1.48 per pound to around $1.3 per pound, the lowest level since 1985. A similar fall occurred against the euro.

On June 23, the United Kingdom held a referendum to determine whether or not the country should leave the European Union. According to the final results, 51.9 percent of voters, or 17.4 million people, decided to support the so-called Brexit, while about 16.1 million opposed it.