U.K. industrial output ‘grim’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33875, 21 June 1975, Page 15

U.K. industrial output ‘grim’

t.v Z.P.I. Staff Correspondent) LONDON, June 20. Britain’s factories are today producing little more than when the nation’s work force was on an emergency three-day week 18 months ago.

This grim fact, disclosed In official figures just published, demonstrates Britain’s plight in the grip of the world economic recession. With the pound still slipping. and the nation still awaiting long-promised Government action to stem inflation, the picture of stagnation tn Britain's industrial output threatens a further rise in unemployment in the months ahead. More and more companies will find it hard to avoid putting workers on short time, or laying them off. as they try to come to terms

with the realities of declining demand and falling output. Already, “Closing Down” notices are appearing in the windows of boutiques and other specialist shops throughout the country: born jin the boom years of the late 19605. and offering trendy, luxury-priced goods, they no longer have the customers to keep them alive. The owners and managers of stores selling stereo and photographic equipment, electrical goods, and household appliances are watching their stocks gather dust. They enjoyed a boom in the three weeks after the Budget, before value added tax was raised from 8 per cent to 25 per cent, but now nobody is buying. Even tobacco companies are feeling the pinch because many more smokers than expected have given up the habit after the hefty Budget increase. Cigarette sales have dropped by more than 400 million a week, and manufacturers are edging their workers into the ranks of the unemployed or partly employed. In April. British industry’s total production fell by 0.9 per cent, according to the -Central Statistical Office. This means that the nation’s output is now only 2.5 per cent above the average level of five years ago — an increase nowhere near enough to lift Britain out of the economic doldrums. According to the Confederation of British Industry, the output trend is likely to fall even further as the year progresses: A C. 8.1. survey shows that 55 per cent of manufacturers have had waning order-books in the last four months, that only 18 per cent expect their output to rise in the next four months, and that 37 per cent resigned to a further fall.