Business activity in the British manufacturing sector improved surprisingly sharply in August

Business activity in the British manufacturing sector improved surprisingly sharply in August to a 10-month high after a dramatic drop to 41-month low in July. The reason was that industrial companies in the country seemed to have recovered from the initial shock of the decision of Britain to leave the EU and managed to increase their export orders, and found support from the sharp depreciation of the British pound after news for Brexit, say analysts.
The industrial PMI index in UK grew strongly in August to 53.3 points from 48.3 points in July with expectations by financial markets for index level of 49.0 points. This is the highest level of the index for 10 months.
Index PMI, which measures industrial new export orders, rose from 51.4 points in July to 54.9 points in August, reaching the highest level since June 2014, while the index for industrial production rose to a 7 month high.
Now on focus is the research by agency Markit about the activity in the UK services sector in August, which will be announced early next week.