British manufacturing activity expanded for a ninth straight month in July but at the slowest pace in four months, ​according to purchasing managers’ data that points ‌to a renewed impact from the Iran war towards the end of last month. The S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index for Britain’s manufacturing sector fell to ​51.9 in July from 52.5 in June, in contrast to ​an earlier provisional or flash reading of 52.8, which ⁠was the third highest reading of the past four years. “The month-on-month ​fall in the level of the PMI was due to a ​steep reduction in stocks of purchases, slower jobs growth and a sharp easing in the rate of increase in vendor lead times,” S&P Global said.