The UK's manufacturing sector continued its recovery last month.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's monthly survey showed manufacturing expanding for the 11th month in a row.

But the figures showed new orders were rising slower than previously and job losses in manufacturing were accelerating.

The CIPS survey's key measure of activity - the Purchasing Managers' Index - came in at 51.4 in March, compared to 51.1 in February. Any number above 50 marks an expansion, while a figure below 50 indicates the sector is shrinking.

The survey also showed output increasing faster at 54.1, up from 52.3 in the previous month, but the outlook for the immediate future was not quite as upbeat with new orders rising more slowly than in recent months.

Manufacturers blamed stocks still left over from the millennium when many companies stocked up in case of a bug-related crisis and the continuing strength of the pound hampering exports and making UK goods more expensive than those made overseas.

Efforts by companies to cut costs to compete with lower prices abroad emerged in the CIPS survey's employment index which fell to 48.4 from 48.7, showing jobs still being shed in the manufacturing sector.

Neil Parker, senior European economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said the CIPS figures painted a mixed picture. "The headline figures are stronger, but things like new orders are not going up as fast as they have been. That is a worry."

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