March UK factory output records biggest annual fall since 2013

London

BRITISH factory output recorded its biggest annual fall in nearly three years in March, as shutdowns in the steel industry due to global overcapacity led broad-based declines, official figures showed on Wednesday.

Manufacturing in March was 1.9 per cent lower than a year earlier, the steepest decline since May 2013, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said and is in line with economists' predictions in a Reuters poll.

In March alone, manufacturing output edged up by 0.1 per cent from February, sli…