The country may be buoyant over the 2012 Olympics but the UK manufacturing sector reports a very glum picture for 2012 in a recent survey from the Purchasing managers Index. In fact, a very worrying 38-month picture of glumness, in the July statement which showed output to the lowest since the index started in 2009.

New orders collapsed as demand slowed, particularly in the export market which saw its sharpest decline in new business since February 2009. There were also reports of a decline in new export business in Asia, which contains some of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world and is viewed by Chancellor George Osborne as a potential route to future economic prosperity for the UK.

It's also believed that record rainfall in the second quarter, as well as lost output from an extra day off during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, weighed heavily on the economy. And overall confidence, both in consumers and businesses, is also weak as the Eurozone crisis rumbles on unresolved and threatens a financial catastrophe at some point in the future.

Written and presented by Ann Salter