British manufacturing output rose more than expected in April as the annual rate of expansion grew to its highest in three months.
Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) said manufacturing production rose by 0.3 per cent on the month in April after a 0.6 per cent rise in March. Analysts had predicted a 0.2 per cent gain.
That took the annual rate to 1.3 per cent from 0.7 per cent in March, the strongest since January.
But factory output in the three months to April was 0.4 per cent lower on the previous three months. The ONS said this was largely due to aircraft production coming off high levels and predicted that manufacturing would look in better shape next month once the February data fell out of the comparison.
Overall industrial output also rose slightly more than expected, by 0.3 per cent instead of the 0.2 per cent predicted by analysts. This left output 0.4 per cent higher on the year, also the strongest in three months. Output in March was 0.4 per cent lower on the year.
The figures are unlikely to alter expectations the Bank of England will raise interest rates in the next few months after it held them at 5.5 per cent this week.