North East firms reported a rise in business activity last month, but regional expansion continues to lag behind the rest of the UK, new data from the NatWest Regional PMI reveals.
The headline NatWest North East Business Activity Index — a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors — rose modestly from 48.4 in January to 51.9 in February, the fastest rise since last July.
However, the rate of growth was considerably softer than the UK as a whole and was the weakest of all 12 UK regions monitored by NatWest.
