{"id":17272,"date":"2019-02-11T16:23:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T16:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=17272"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:43","slug":"economy-deep-freeze-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=17272","title":{"rendered":"Economy in the ‘deep freeze’?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The economy is heading for a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdeep freeze\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite warned after it was revealed growth last year was at a six year low and that\u00c2\u00a0 manufacturing has gone into recession.<\/p>\n

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Overall growth during 2018 was down 0.4 per cent from the year before and the slowest since 2012, the Office for National Statistics<\/a> (ONS) said today (11 February).<\/p>\n

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The ONS said a fall in car, steel and other manufacturing<\/a> output, along with a decrease in Christmas high street spending, also resulted in a 0.4 per cent decrease in the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gross domestic product (GDP) between November and December.<\/p>\n

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Analysis from the ONS showed that the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three biggest economic drivers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c services, construction and manufacturing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all contracted during the last month of the year.<\/p>\n

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Worst hit was manufacturing, which declined for the sixth month in a row and went into recession.<\/p>\n

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Institute of Directors senior economist Tej Parikh said Brexit<\/a> uncertainty is the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bprime suspect\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 behind the poor economic performance.<\/p>\n

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He added, “There is currently a drag on growth as some businesses are forced to hold back on major investments and engage in cautionary stockpiling.”<\/p>\n

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The ONS figures come after forecasts of a slow down in 2019 because of Brexit and a weakening global economy.<\/p>\n

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Responding to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economic growth and output figures, Unite assistant general secretary Steve Tuner said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll the warning signs are pointing to the economy heading for the deep freeze thanks to the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mishandling of the economy and Brexit uncertainty.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe last time manufacturing output fell for six months in a row was during the financial crisis in 2008, while business investment is also down for the fourth quarter in row.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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With automotive<\/a> and steel driving the downturn in manufacturing, Turner called on government ministers to put UK steel<\/a> at the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bheart of a turbo charged industrial strategy that supports decent jobs and UK plc\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis must include government ministers guaranteeing the use of UK steel in major infrastructure projects and building the Royal Navy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new solid support vessels in UK shipyards,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government also needs to take action on the dumping of cheap steel and inferior tyres from overseas.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Turner blasted those advocating a reduction of tariffs to zero on all imports in the event of a no deal Brexit and demanded ministers take heed of the uncertainty their approach to leaving the EU is causing.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt would be an act of economic vandalism that would threaten jobs and leave UK manufacturers competing with both hands tied behind their backs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGovernment ministers need to hear the alarm bells that are ringing throughout the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manufacturing communities and support British industry by taking a no deal Brexit off the table and securing tariff free frictionless trade with Europe.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The economy is heading for a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdeep freeze\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite warned after it was revealed growth last year was at a six year low and that\u00c2\u00a0 manufacturing has gone into recession.   Overall growth during 2018 was down 0.4 per cent from the year before and the slowest since 2012, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[55],"wps_subtitle":"Growth last year at a six-year low as manufacturing goes into recession","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25548,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17272\/revisions\/25548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}