However manufacturers cut more jobs than they created

However manufacturers cut more jobs than they created.Across the Atlantic, US manufacturing surged to a 20-year high at the start of the New Year as factories scrambled to keep up with demand. “The strength of global demand at the moment is offsetting any exchange rate effects,” Mr Williamson said.The eurozone’s manufacturing sector grew a little faster in January thanks to buoyant worldwide demand, but the euro’s strength forced companies to cut jobs to stay competitive, an equivalent survey showed. There was further good news, with companies taking on more staff for the second month in a row. If this feeds through to the official figures it will mark the end of a six-year fall in manufacturing employment.CIPS said it was the first time in five years that manufacturing had been a net recruiter for two successive months.”Companies are planning to increase employment and capital expenditure over the next year, the first time they have been prepared to do that for several years now,” said Chris Williamson, an economist at NTC Research, which conducts the poll.The report said companies cited continued strong demand from the US, China and Japan despite the fall in the dollar. Roy Ayliffe, a director at CIPS, said: “Firms continued to be pushed to meet rising demands driven by the growth levels in the manufacturing economy.”The upbeat tone of the survey pushed the pound close to 10-week highs as expectations hardened for a rate rise on Thursday.CIPS’ survey of the services sector published tomorrow will be the last important piece of economic data before the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee sits down for its two-day meeting.”The survey eliminates another risk from Thursday’s rate decision when a quarter-point hike is widely expected,” said George Buckley, UK economist at Deutsche Bank.The survey also showed that prices charged by manufacturers rose at their fastest rate for four years – although not as fast as the increase in raw materials costs.

New figures show that manufacturing industry vaulted to a fresh four-year high last month, clearing the way for a rise in interest rates this week, according to economists. Their lawyers have already suggested the two were not aware of the fraud committed on a massive scale by Mr Clough, a trained accountant who was Versailles’ finance director.Mr Clough admitted he attempted to mislead the Department of Trade and Industry by falsifying sales figures after it opened an investigation in 1999 into Versailles’ affairs.Asked what Mr Cushnie had said they should do about the DTI crawling all over the books, Mr Clough said it was to the effect that “we had better try something and anything was better than nothing”.Mr Cushnie was also behind the plan to move part of Versailles to the British Virgin Islands in order to avoid the rigours of being audited in the UK, according to Mr Clough.The case continues.. He is said to have taken £19m from the company, none of which has been recovered.Mr Cushnie and Lorraine Jones, an accounts controller, are also accused of defrauding the company’s shareholders and creditors, although they deny the charges. At one point, £611,000 was paid into C Ltd, the court heard.Mr Cushnie allegedly stole a total of £37m through the 1990s from Versailles, a trade finance company which was meant to provide bridging loans mainly to small businesses. In reality Versailles grossly inflated the amount of business it appeared to do by falsifying its accounts, Mr Clough claims.Mr Clough, who has become the star witness for the prosecution, has admitted he conspired to defraud Versailles. Carl Cushnie, the founder of the collapsed corporate lender Versailles, allegedly set up a separate company which siphoned off money from various parts of the business, a court heard yesterday.
Fred Clough, a former business partner of Mr Cushnie who is now giving evidence against him, said he was aware of a company called C Ltd, which he believed was controlled by Mr Cushnie.C Ltd “was being used to receive funds from certain companies within the Versailles group”, Mr Clough told Southwark Crown Court.

His move follows a climbdown by the Londis board, which had previously favoured a £40m takeover by the Irish group Musgrave that would have netted the four top directors a £20m windfall.Mr Ramsden said he had been courting Londis for a number of years but had decided not to compete in the “bidding auction” because he felt “an outright sale is not in the best long-term interests of Londis owners”. Mr Jackson sold the group’s construction business in 2002 and bought First Engineering for £65m.. The fight for control of Londis, one of the country’s biggest convenience store chains, intensified yesterday when the buying group Nisa-Today’s unveiled plans to merge with the company. The dividend cut, the Charles Stanley analysts pointed out, was also obviously disappointing for shareholders owning the stock for income.P&O saidoverall trading remained “consistent” with its expectations at the time of the third-quarter trading update in November.