Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index falling to a 7-year low of 47.4; and what assessment they have made of the statement by Capital Economics that the sector is “on track for recession”.

The Purchasing Managers Indices (PMIs), are a useful and timely barometer of economic activity but our assessment is that there is a trade-off between speed of publication and data quality. In addition, while the PMIs are mainly focused on changes in objective measures such as sales, evidence suggests they are still affected by business sentiment.