The price of goods leaving Britain's factories rose more than expected last month, led by a huge surge in petroleum prices. UK manufacturing output prices rose 0.5pc in March from February and were up 1.9pc on a year-on-year basis, National Statistics (NS) said. The annual increase was the largest since December 2000. Petroleum output prices rose 2.7pc in March from February and were up 12.3pc from a year earlier.
Input prices - raw material costs - eased 0.2pc in March from the previous month and were up 1.5pc from a year earlier, NS said. Input prices had risen in the previous three months due to increasing oil prices. Crude oil has declined since the war in Iraq began, dropping sharply since US forces took control of Baghdad. Oil cartel OPEC is to hold an emergency meeting later this month at which it is expected to cut output in a bid to support crude prices above USD25 per barrel. At 1015 in London, brent crude was down 49c to USD24.28 per barrel. //www.fxcentre.com