Chapter III. Industrial Production

Industrial production fell in 1974 for the first time since the 1958 recession. The all industries index showed a decline of almost 3 per cent. This was rather more than the fall in manufacturing production of 2 per cent because the wider category includes activity in mining and quarrying and construction, which were two of the worst hit sectors in the economy. Because of the weakness of these two sectors industrial production lagged behind manufacturing production throughout the year (chart 1), even though output in gas, electricity and water was one of the few growth areas. The only other sectors which saw some growth in 1974 were drink and tobacco, chemicals, mechanical and instrument engineering, shipbuilding, other metal goods and pottery and glass. Throughout the rest of industry the picture was one of decline. In manufacturing three sectors-ferrous metals, bricks and cement, and timber and furniture-suffered falls of over 10 per cent during the year, whilst motor vehicles fell by 9 per cent. The output of the engineering and allied industries as a whole declined by 1 1/2 per cent, which was a slightly smaller fall than for total manufacturing.