Growth of global manufacturing decelerated again in early 2019 according to UNIDO report.

VIENNA, 7 June 2019 - The slowdown in global manufacturing growth evident since the end of 2017 continued in the first quarter of 2019. Emerging trade and tariff barriers involving the United States and China, as well as the European Union, have exposed markets to a significant amount of uncertainty, which in turn has affected investment and future growth.

Against the backdrop of the uncertainty about the timing of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit) and about the nature of their future economic relationship, disaggregated data shows that the manufacturing output of industrialized economies in Europe grew by just 0.3 per cent.

Data for the first quarter of 2019 indicates a negative year-on-year growth rate for two leading eurozone economies: manufacturing output fell by 2.3 per cent in Germany and by 0.9 per cent in Italy. France and Spain, by contrast, witnessed positive year-on-year growth rates in the first quarter of 2019 (1.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively), following decreases observed in the fourth quarter of 2018. Manufacturing output rose by 2.8 percent in Norway, 1.5 percent in the Russian Federation and 5.0 percent in Switzerland, the report outlines.

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