Manufacturing output tumbled 2.2% in December from November Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Output was down 10.2% on a 12-month basis to record the biggest annual drop since 1981.
The ONS said that a wider measure of industrial production, which includes mining, quarrying and energy, plunged 1.7% in December from November and was down 9.4% year-on-year.
In other official data, the price of goods leaving British factories rose for the first time in six months in January, while input prices climbed 1.5% month-on-month.
Output prices gained 0.1% in January from December and were up 3.5% year-on-year.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
