In the seasonally adjusted figures, the Pulp, Paper, Printing and Publishing sector (PPPP) proved to be one of the most underperforming sectors in manufacturing during March with a drop of 2.2%.

The Q1 results showed a drop of 1.4% on the previous quarter, double that of the manufacturing sector as a whole which reported a 0.7% drop.

According to PrintWeek economist David Ross, however, the wide gamut of industries in the PPPP sector made it hard to draw any conclusions for the print industry specifically.

"The drop isn't really something I picked up on in the BPIF's Directions survey in March," he said. "In fact, there was a feeling that output had held up pretty well year on year."

This was echoed by Amicus GPMS assistant general secretary Tony Burke: "The drop is obviously of concern but the PPPP sector is very wide ranging.

"As far as we can see productivity is actually going up in the UK," he added.

There was some cause for cheer with the ONS releasing figures for the Producer Price Index which showed a rise in output prices for the PPPP sector.

The April figures, which aren't seasonally adjusted, show a 3.2% rise on those of April 2004, in line with manufacturing as a whole. When adjusted, however, the figure becomes a 0.3% drop.

Production output is scaled against a base level of 100, which was set in 2001. At that time it was responsible for nearly 22% of the UK's GDP. Today it is responsible for less than 20%.

Story by Darryl Danielli