He said: “The UK manufacturing PMI figures for September showed a small but nonetheless very welcome improvement. Domestic demand was more positive and orders to North America and Europe increased slightly on August’s numbers. However, this is in contrast to the overall European reading, which has seen its weakest indicator for two years. It’s also interesting that job creation at UK SMEs continued to grow, offsetting the decline in larger companies, but it’s a mixed picture, particularly for inventory levels – with some businesses building and others reducing. 

 

“As for the future, continued political uncertainty in the form of Brexit and global trade wars, combined with fluctuating foreign exchange rates, is of concern to manufacturers and makes forecasting difficult. All the more reason then for businesses to truly understand their supply chains, particularly as inflationary pressures continue to build and supply shortages are, in some areas, evident. Manufacturers will undoubtedly be looking towards this week’s party conference speeches for more clarity.’”

-Ends-

 

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KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, operates from 22 offices across the UK with approximately 14,500 partners and staff.  The UK firm recorded a revenue of £2.2 billion in the year ended 30 September 2017. KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax, and Advisory services. It operates in 154 countries and territories and has 200,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity.  Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.