UK manufacturing has seen its strongest growth in two and a half years in August, according to a new survey.

This marks the fifth consecutive month of expansion for the sector and the highest since February 2011.

Meanwhile, the Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI) also found that output and new orders rose at their fastest rate for 19 years.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compilers Markit said: “The UK’s factories are booming again. Orders and output are growing at the fastest rates for almost twenty years, as rising demand from domestic customers is being accompanied by a return to growth of our largest trading partner, the eurozone.
“The sector therefore continues to build on the solid0.7% expansion registered during the second quarter, and growth could easily break the 1.0% mark in the third quarter. Manufacturing is clearly making a strong positive contribution to the economy, providing welcome evidence that the long - awaited rebalancing of the economy towards manufacturing and exports is at last starting to take place now that our export markets are recovering.

“Looking at the broader economic picture, the new forward guidance provided by the Bank of England places greater emphasis on job creation alongside economic growth and price inflation. While the latest PMI suggests that the output side is increasingly positive, the news on the other fronts is much less so. Employee numbers crept up only slightly, as companies squeezed extra output from existing resources. At the same time, the rate of input cost inflation surged upwards on the back of rising oil and related prices."