Weak demand caused orders to drop for the first time since January 2021, with makers of consumer goods seeing the steepest falls as households cut back amid the cost of living crisis.
Swathes of businesses are passing higher costs on to clients and pushing up pay for workers, according to the S&P Global/CIPS Purchasing Managers Index.
Business confidence slumped in June, with manufacturers and service providers reporting their lowest levels of business optimism since May 2020, according to the S&P Global/CIPS Flash UK PMI Composite Output Index. The fall of 4.6 points was the largest monthly decline since the start of the pandemic. The