THE hard-pressed manufacturing sector received a lift after official figures showed output recovered strongly in July.

The Office for National Statistics recorded a rise of 4.9 per cent, the largest increase of manufacturing output since February 1979.

The increase comes after the Jubilee holiday caused a big downward shift in June, knocking output back to its lowest level for more than 22 years.

The missing bank holiday in May boosted production, while the long break in June saw factories shut down and output decline.

Most economists had expected an improvement in July and the figure turned out to be at the higher end of expectations.

The ONS said: "The increase is caused by widespread significant rises in the manufacturing industries and follows the significant monthly fall in output in June of 5.5 per cent."

The latest figures showed output fell one per cent on a three-monthly basis and 2.6 per cent against the same month a year ago.

The wider measure of industrial production, which includes mining, quarrying, electricity and gas output, rose 3.4 per cent in July and dipped 0.1 per cent on a three-monthly basis.

David Page, economist at Investec, had been predicting a 4.2 per cent rise and called July's bounce-back "encouraging".