U.K. industrial production grew at a slower pace in April, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday.
Industrial output increased 0.4 percent month-on-month in April, weaker than March's 0.6 percent growth, but better than the expected growth of 0.1 percent.
At the same time, manufacturing output dropped unexpectedly by 0.4 percent, offsetting a similar 0.4 percent rise seen in March. Economists had forecast a 0.1 percent rise.
On a yearly basis, industrial output growth edged up to 1.2 percent in April from 1.1 percent in March. At the same time, manufacturing growth eased notably to 0.2 percent from 1.2 percent.
Economists had forecast 0.6 percent rise in industrial production and 0.4 percent increase in manufacturing output.
Even if industrial production now only held steady in May and June, it would still be 0.8 percent higher in the second quarter than in the first quarter - the strongest quarterly growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2010 and far in excess of the first quarter's 0.1 percent rise, Samuel Tombs, a senior UK economist at Capital Economics said.
The economist said he remains optimistic that economic growth growth could rebound strongly in the second quarter of this year.
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