Chapter II. Industrial Production

Abstract

The decline in industrial production, which began in the third quarter of 1974, continued during 1975 until in the third quarter output reached 1970's average level. However, there was a slight rise of 1 per cent in the last quarter. For the year as a whole the all-industries index was 4½ per cent lower than in 1974; the index for manufacturing industries' production fell further (5½ per cent) because it does not include mining and quarrying output, which increased by more than 9 per cent over the year. Apart from mining and quarrying, the only sectors which showed any growth were drink and tobacco, shipbuilding, and aerospace and other vehicles. In the manufacturing sector several industries—coal and petroleum, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, pottery and glass, and paper, printing and publishing—fell by more than 10 per cent; the largest fall was in the manufacture of ferrous metals. The output of all engineering and allied industries taken together dropped by 4 per cent, considerably less than the decline in total manufacturing production. All the main indicators of surplus capacity, namely unemployment, orders on hand, short-time working, vacancies, and deviation from trend output, show that the level of capacity utilisation is extremely low.