Dear Sir,
Jim Ratcliffe makes some interesting points in his article on UK manufacturing ("Let's find unique selling points that will help to revive UK manufacturing", 10 January). However, he is incorrect to claim that the Office for National Statistics does not clearly separate out manufacturing within in its monthly Index of Production statistics. Manufacturing is clearly identified in published statistics.
The figures show that UK manufacturing output has fallen by just under one and a half percentage points in the twenty years to October 2015. The decline Mr Ratcliffe refers to actually represents manufacturing's share of the UK economy, rather than its absolute size. The fall in manufacturing’s share of the economy is the result of growth in the rest of the UK economy, with manufacturing output in October 2015 very similar in real terms to that of twenty years earlier.
Yours faithfully
Jonathan Athow,
Deputy National Statistician and Director General, Economic Statistics,
Office for National Statistics,
1 Drummond Gate,
London SW1V 2QQ