February fall reported in year-on-year car production

OUTPUT from Britain's car factories surprisingly fell by 3 per cent last month compared with February 1992, writes Michael Harrison.

The decline in output from 114,192 a year ago to 110,844 was the first year- on-year fall since last August.

However, on a seasonally adjusted basis car production rose by 5 per cent in February compared with January, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers.

The mixed signals about the health of the motor industry were further confused by the breakdown of production in February.

This shows that, despite the sharp decline in sales in most Continental car markets, production for export rose by 4.4 per cent last month.

In contrast, output for the domestic market - which grew 16 per cent last month - was down by nearly 9 per cent on the previous year.

Commercial vehicle output in February, meanwhile, was down nearly 16 per cent from a year earlier at 17,912.