The current state of UK manufacturing was revealed in the Office of National Statistics (ONS) latest Index of Production for the three months to October 2005.

The pulp, paper, printing and publishing sector suffered a significant 1.2% fall, just behind that of food, drink and tobacco, down 2%.

An ONS spokesman said that although the pulp, paper and printing sector had experienced one of the worst falls, it was "not an alarming decrease".

The publishing of journals and periodicals was down 2.9% during the three months, and by 10.4% against the same period last year. During October alone, publishing of journals and periodicals declined 0.8% against the previous month.

The overall decrease in UK manufacturing for the three-month period was 1.1%, contradicting initial City analyst forecasts of a 0.2% rise.

Manufacturing output in the latest three months fell by 0.3% compared with the previous three-month period.

Manufacturing accounts for nearly 80% of UK industrial production.