UK Industrial Output, Car Registrations Rise

ROBERT BARR

LONDON (AP) — British industrial production and new car registrations rose in recent months, data showed Thursday, as the Bank of England announced it would increase the size of its monetary stimulus.

With the economy still mired in recession, the central bank said it would spend another 25 billion pounds ($41 billion) to buy assets from banks to expand the money supply. The Bank, which held its key lending rate at an all-time low of 0.5 percent, reiterated its view that recovery would be slow.

In fact, the 1.6 percent monthly rise in industrial production in September wasn't enough to pull the sector to growth in the third quarter, and new construction orders were flat, the Office for National Statistics said.

The statistics agency had reported earlier this month that the U.K. economy shrank by 0.4 percent in the third quarter, keeping it in recession.

"With production still down by more than 10 percent on a year ago, the road to recovery in industry will be a long and bumpy one," said Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics.