Mfg in UK contracts at slower pace

LONDON: UK manufacturing contracted at the slowest pace in eight months in April, adding to evidence that the country���s deepest recession in a generation will ease later this year.

A gauge based on a survey of factories climbed to 42.9 from a revised 39.5 the previous month, the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and Markit Economics said.

Economists predicted 40, according to the median of 29 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. A separate Bank of England report showed mortgage approvals rose less than forecast in March.

UK is showing some signs of pulling out of its downward spiral after contracting at the fastest pace since 1979 in the first quarter. Consumer confidence rose to the highest in a year in April and the pace of house-price declines is slowing.

At the same time, another report showed that insolvencies jumped in the first three months of the year.