British factory output fell unexpectedly in November, for the fifth month in the past six, bolstering the chances interest rates will remain on hold at 4.75 percent later on Thursday and perhaps for months to come. The Office for National Statistics said that manufacturing output dropped 0.1 percent in November, matching the unrevised fall for October and confounding economists' expectations for 0.3 percent rise.
The unexpected drop left the level of manufacturing output, which accounts for just over 17 percent the British economy, unchanged on a year ago.
Official data on manufacturing remain much more gloomy than private industry surveys and policymakers have said that the figures are probably overstating the weakness.
Within manufacturing, the ONS said the monthly drop in November was driven by a 1.9 percent fall in output chemicals and man-made fibres industries, which was offset somewhat by a significant 1.3 percent in the transport equipment industries.
Economists also said that the disappointing figures meant that there was little chance of production industries boosting fourth quarter gross domestic product growth, which is still expected to have picked up from below-trend in the third.
"It's likely that the contribution to Q4 GDP is going to be negative from the industrial output and manufacturing side. So Q4 might not be as strong as people are forecasting," said Jeavon Lolay of Lloyds TSB in London.
Meanwhile the ONS said that industrial output as a whole, which accounts for nearly one quarter of GDP, rose 0.2 percent in November, breaking a five-month streak of falls.
But that gain, which was driven in part by output in the energy industry, was still less than the 0.4 percent economists had expected and left the level of industrial output down 0.9 percent compared with a year ago.