UK industrial production fell by 0.8 per cent in May, much more than expected, adding to a growing picture of an economy where growth is challenged in almost every sector.

Meanwhile, manufacturing output between April and May fell by 0.5 per cent with widespread falls in almost every category and no sector seeing a strong increase in production. Over the latest three months, output fell by 0.2 per cent compared with the previous three months.

“There are no sectors in the UK economy which are showing any signs of growth,” said David Page, economist at Investec Securities, noting that the key PMI survey of the much larger services sector last week also showed a shrinking economy.

“It shows that the weakness of sterling is not helping demand,” he said.

Alan Clarke, economist at BNP Paribas said the data were a signal the economy is likely to worsen overall. “These data for May are grim,” he said, adding that given the June plunge in manufacturing PMI to the mid-40 category, “the news is likely to get a whole lot worse.” A PMI reading below 50 indicates shrinking demand.

Within industrial production, much of the drop came from a decline of 2.0 per cent in the output of electricity, gas and water, which registered is largest one-month drop since October 2001.

Mining and quarrying output decreased by 1.6 per cent in the latest three months while the output of consumer durables fell by 2.1 per cent compared with the previous period.

But capital goods production, a subset of manufacturing, registered a modest rise of 0.3 per cent compared with the previous three months and remains 0.6 per cent higher than where it was a year ago.

Within manufacturing, the “other” category of miscellaneous goods registered the single largest drop of 3.5 per cent.