UK MANUFACTURING output in October fell at its fastest rate since June, just-released official figures show.
Output fell by 1.3%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Compared with a year earlier, output was down by 2.1%.
The figure for the wider measure of industrial output, which also includes energy production and mining, was down 0.8% in October, after falling 2.1% in September.
Oil and gas extraction fell in the month at the fastest rate since records began in January 1998.
The seasonally adjusted index of production fell by 3% in October 2012 compared with a year ago, the 19th consecutive monthly fall.
‘Triple dip here we come,’ said Alan Clarke at Scotiabank.
Summoning up all of his optimism, he added: ‘Manufacturing was diabolical. Sadly, I think there is not a lot to suggest that it is temporary.’
David Kern the chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, joined the chorus of doom for capitalism saying that the industrial production figures are ‘bleak’, and that ‘the manufacturing sector is facing major obstacles to a sustainable recovery’.
The news comes in the same week as the government’s Autumn Statement, which said the economy would shrink this year, rather than expand as had first been predicted, and where the Chancellor admitted that he had cooked the books to avoid a complete financial collapse by counting a number of dubious items – including the £28bn CWU pension fund, and over £35bn interest that the government has paid on the electronically created Bank of England’s ‘quantitative easing billions’ – as part of the government’s funds.
However, the debt and slump plague is still spreading with Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, cutting its growth forecast for next year, saying the country’s economy is entering recession.
This came one day after the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, cut his forecast for eurozone growth. Draghi blamed this on the stagnation in the strongest eurozone countries, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Southern European countries, such as Spain and Italy, have been in slump for more than a year, but now the plague is spreading to the rest of the single currency zone.
The German Bundesbank has warned that Germany’s economy may suffer a ‘recession’ during the current quarter and the first three months of next year.
France has already been stripped of its ‘Triple A’ credit rating. The second largest economy in the eurozone has been hit by a jobless total that reached 10.3% of the workforce in the third quarter of this year. The rise in youth unemployment was even more marked, hitting 24.9%.
France is catching up with Greece, on 26% unemployment and over 50% youth unemployment, and Spain, with a total of 5.78 million unemployed or 25.02% of the population.
Between July and September, 85,000 more Spanish people joined the ranks of the unemployed, raising the total to 5.78 million, with over 50% of youth unemployed.
In Greece, Spain and Portugal the working class is already on the march.
In Ireland, the latest austerity budget has infuriated millions to the point where the ITUC trade union organisation has had to call mobilisations of the entire population to be held on Saturday February 9th, 2013 in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Sligo, Limerick and Waterford.
The Irish masses are demanding an indefinite general strike to bring down the government and annul the debt.
In Britain, a perpetual austerity programme is being unveiled, so that tomorrow’s children and their children will still be paying for the crisis of capitalism. This has helped the UK working class to make up its mind that it has no alternative but to stand and fight to defend the NHS, the Welfare State and every job, by whatever means are necessary.
The European Socialist Revolution is now emerging at an explosive rate. Now is the time to build sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International to lead it to its victory.
