UK manufacturing sector’s poor Q1 performance does not herald the beginning of a prolonged period of weakness

April and Q2's CBI Industrial Trends Survey (released on Monday) provided some reasons to be optimistic that the manufacturing sector's poor performance in Q1 does not herald the beginning of a prolonged period of weakness. 

Granted, the headline total orders balance only inched up from 0 in March to +1 in April, and the output expectations balance fell from +22 to +16. But both indicators remain comfortably above their long-run averages.