Britain's manufacturing output decreased by 1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005 compared with the third quarter, official statistics ONS showed on Wednesday.

Figures form the Office of National Statistics revealed that seven out of the 13 subsectors decreased in output, four increased and two subsectors remained unchanged in the quarter.

There were significant decreases in output in the transport equipment industries, where output decreased by 4.6 percent, the electrical and optical equipment industries saw a decrease of 2.7 percent, and in the paper, printing and publishing industries, the output decreased by 1.6 percent.

The only significant increase in output in the quarter was of 1. 5 percent in the machinery and equipment industries.

Overall production output decreased by 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005, the ONS figures showed.

Within production the 1 percent decrease in manufacturing output was offset by increases of 0.1 percent in the energy supply sector and 0.4 percent in the mining and quarrying sector.

The increase in mining and quarrying output was mainly due to increased gas extraction. Temperatures were much lower than average in both November and December which increased the domestic demand for gas for heating purposes.

Between November and December, manufacturing output increased by 0.3 percent, with output rising in nine of the thirteen subsectors and falling in just four subsectors.

The only significant increase was in the chemicals and man-made fibers industries (1.5 percent) and the only significant decrease this month came in the electrical and optical equipment industries (down 1.8 per cent).

The overall Index of Production increased by 0.2 percent between November and December.

Mining and quarrying output increased by 0.6 per cent, while energy supply output decreased by 0.5 percent in December. Within energy supply the only decrease was in gas supply and this was due to reduced commercial gas usage following large prices rises.

For 2005 as a whole, production industries' output was 1.7 percent lower than in 2004. Within this, manufacturing output decreased by 0.8 percent in 2005 compared with 2004, electricity, gas and water supply decreased by 1.1 percent and mining and quarrying output fell by 8.7 percent.

Source: Xinhua