Industry looking overseas for growth

A worsening economy will force British manufacturers to look overseas for growth in 2012, according to a survey of senior executives.

Half of all business leaders expect the UK economy to deteriorate throughout the year, against just one in five anticipating any improvement, according to the EEF manufacturers' organisation.

The survey comes against a backdrop of a sliding manufacturing sector at home which threatens to tip the economy back into recession in the final quarter of 2011, months after the Chancellor, George Osborne, called for a new "march of the makers" in the Budget.

The survey found that two-thirds of executives have already adjusted plans to hunt out new global markets, while four in five expect export sales to be at least as strong or stronger this year. The greatest threats to growth were seen to be raw material shortages and a further escalation of the EU debt crisis.

Lee Hopley, EEF's chief economist, said: "The road ahead for manufacturing and the UK is uncertain, but most manufacturers continue to grasp the opportunities in untapped markets for services and in faster-growing emerging markets."