UK manufacturing drops at slowest speed for 13 months

The decline in the British manufacturing industry slowed much sharply than expected by experts, the Telegraph reported. This means that the economy may not have shrunk as much as thought in the first three months. The manufacturing production fell by just 0.1%, its smallest fall in over a year. Hetal Mehta, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club said for the newspaper that the figures were "a pleasant surprise and likely to lead to an upward revision to the first quarter gross domestic product data". This means that if the numbers continue to improve in the next few months the recession for the UK might be over. However, the rate of contraction is still severe in some industries. The article published by the Telegraph provided well balanced, two sided argument concerning the economic condition of the UK.
The Wall Street Journal reported a rise in the factory-gate prices at their slowest pace in five years in April, while input prices dropped at the fastest rate in almost seven years. "April's producer prices figures serve as a timely reminder that pipeline price pressures in the U.K. economy are fading rapidly," said Jonathan Loynes, U.K. economist at Capital Economics. The main reason for the overall weakening, according to the WSJ is petroleum-product prices, which dropped 16.3% in the year to April. In monthly terms, input prices fell 1%, following a 1.3% rise in March. Economists had forecast a 0.8% gain.
The article from the FT is the longest. They don’t use a lot of interviews but they analyse the situation from different perspectives by using a range of numerical economic data. They also include more information about the UK, such as that over the last three months exports to the USA, Italy and Japan have risen, but fallen much more sharply to France, Germany and Canada. Imports have fallen particularly sharply from Japan, but risen to the US and they also say that the pound rose 1.1 per cent to $1.5277 against the dollar on Tuesday, its strongest level since early January. It climbed 0.6 per cent to £0.8931 against the euro and gained 1.4 per cent to Y149.10 against the yen. In overall, the opinion of the FT is that the economy is past the worst of the recession.
As usually the BBC use a lot of quotes by experts and economists. BBC doesn’t provide their own opinion and judgment, but they shape it out of the quotes included in the article. They provided both positive and negative perspectives, however it was more negative compared to the other media, which reported the news. The BBC included things such as that the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the manufacturing downturn was a threat to the skills in the country.
In overall, the news show that the economic condition of the UK is improving and the country might be coming out of the recession. However, we shouldn’t make assumptions yet, as the figures might change in the future and it is early to say if the downturn in manufacturing is over. Also, the situation is still bad in many areas.

Centrica in British energy deal

British Gas owner Centrica has said it is buying a 20% stake in nuclear firm British Energy for 2.3bn pounds. BBC reported the news by starting off with saying that the owner of British Energy is the French EDF and at first it was agreed that Centrica will buy 25% for the price of 3.1bn pounds. Then the article explains that Centrica and EDF plan to build additional nuclear plants in the UK and in a statement Centrica said that the deal should be positive for both customers and investors, because it lowers the exposure of the company to energy price volatility. The article then explains about EDF and there is a list of British Energy’s nuclear plants. The company has 8 power stations generating 14% of UK’s domestic energy supply. Then it says that the shares of the company increased by 3.6% after they announced about the deal and in overall the article is positive and uses positive quotes by people in high positions in the company.
The Wall Street Journal started with the same information about the deal as BBC. However, they included far more details and data compared to BBC, but did not analyse them. Most of the article was from an interview conducted by their UK representative, Selina Williams and it was mainly quoted.
The article of the FT was relatively short. They started off in the same way but they said that the UK gas group will pay about half in cash and the balance will be accounted for with the transfer to EDF of Centrica's 51 per cent stake in SPE, Belgium's second-largest power producer. The FT doesn’t use any quotes and they talk about the history of the deal and that the two companies have been struggling for quite a while to reach a compromise. Also, the FT includes data which is interesting for potential and current investors, such as that EDF had said it would not accept less than what it paid for British Energy at 765p a share and the group is facing a substantial investment programme both in France and abroad, with the costs of its new generation EPR reactor skyrocketing and the nuclear revival opening up markets more quickly than anticipated. The article says that EDF has some current financial problems, but for Centrica the deal will be beneficial.
As usually the article in Bloomberg is the longest. It includes all of the above information and a lot more. The article is divided into different sections, including UK Power, Belgian Assets, German Utilities, etc. they are aimed to different stakeholders of the two companies and therefore to people with different interests. It includes both financial and business and economics information.
In overall the deal is quite good for Centrica as this is the first time they enter the nuclear power sector. However, they are experienced with power and energy supply and therefore can exploit fully the advantages of the new acquisition.