Manufacturing in the United Kingdom fell by .4% during the month of June, shocking markets already stumbling from bad global economic data and downgrade developments. Economists had expected growth in the sector.

Alan Clarke, chief UK economist at Scotia Capital, said: “At the start of the year, two areas of the economy were identified as being the likely engines of growth that would propel a continued recovery in the UK economy – manufacturing and net exports. Half way through the year, neither appear to be delivering the sort of growth rates that we hoped for.”

Manufacturing output fell by 0.4% in June from the previous month, confounding the City’s expectation of a 0.2% increase, and following a rise of 1.8% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics. Car production suffered the biggest fall, of 1.7%, while chemicals, and paper and publishing also shrank in June.

ING economist James Knightley said: “The worry is that plunging equity markets will hurt business confidence and lead to firms cutting orders thus prompting further falls in output. As a result, the prospect of further action from the Bank of England continues to grow.”

Industrial production, which also includes utilities and mining, was flat on the month after North Sea oil and gas extraction failed to bounce back from maintenance work in May.

It likely means than second quarter GDP growth will remain at just .2% — a meager figure that demonstrates continued economic weakness. Manufacturing makes up 13% of the entire British economy.