REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Britain's main manufacturing trade body on Monday cut its forecast for the sector's growth for this year and next, citing a sharp fall in factory output and economic uncertainty. Trade body Make UK expects output to fall 0.5% in 2023, down from its June forecast for a 0.3% drop, and grow just 0.5% in 2024. "Manufacturers are seeing a very sharp slowdown in activity as the potent cocktail of rising interest rates, cost of living and slowing overseas markets bites hard," Verity Davidge, policy director at Make UK said. "But it is the scale of the fall in the indicators this quarter that comes as a surprise and highlights the extent of the slowdown on UK manufacturing." Make UK's quarterly survey said the balance for manufacturing output was the weakest performance for production since the last quarter in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Persons: Phil Noble, Verity Davidge, Richard Austin, Suban Abdulla, Andy Bruce Organizations: Rover, REUTERS, Make, Bank of England, Bank of, BDO, Manufacturers, Thomson Locations: Solihull, Britain, July's