Investors in the manufacturing sector have had to endure an array of ambiguous statistics of late.

The good news is that the sector looks as if it grew by 0.4 per cent in the three months to February (against the previous quarter) with a total of eight industry sub-sectors seeing rising output. There were particularly good performances from the rubber, plastics and textiles sub-sectors and a record high output figure recorded by those in chemicals.

The bad news though was that electrical and optical equipment makers and those in the wood and fuels business saw output drop. Even more surprising was subsequent data that showed output for the sector as a whole actually fell in February.

Rounding off the negative news was the publication of data from the Office of National Statistics which confirmed that rampant oil and gas prices are having an adverse affect on the supply chain by pushing prices higher. Raw materials bills for those in the manufacturing sector rose at their fastest pace in the nine months to April 2006.