UK manufacturing slump reignites triple-dip recession fears

Britain’s latest poor manufacturing output data have left the country teetering on the brink of a third recession since the 2008 financial crisis.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), manufacturing output in the UK has dropped 1.5 percent during a snow-hit January, wiping out December’s gain and bucking forecasts for a flat reading.

The decline meant that British overall industrial output, which also includes energy and mining production, slid by 1.2 percent in January to reach the lowest level since May 1992.

Economists warned that a further fall in economic performance in the next quarter will lead Britain slipping back into recession.

Trade unions have also turned up the heat on British Chancellor George Osborne to come up with measures to revive growth in his annual budget next week.

“These figures should serve as a warning to George Osborne that his forthcoming budget must be a game-changer for Britain’s economy,” said Tony Burke, the assistant general secretary of the union Unite, the largest trade union in Britain and Ireland with 1.5 million members.

Moreover, Scotiabank economist Alan Clarke described the news of an unexpected decline in manufacturing as the “penultimate nail in the coffin in terms of triple-dip.”

Earlier this week, British pound once again slid against dollar to $1.4868, its lowest level since the early days of the coalition in 2010.