The UK's manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace for 10 months in March, a survey has indicated.
The Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for manufacturing rose to 52.1 last month from 51.5 in February. A reading above 50 implies growth.
The data is an encouraging sign that the economy grew in the first three months of 2012 and avoided a recession.
But while there was a pick-up in new orders, March output was also boosted by clearing backlogs of existing work.
Markit said that conditions in the sector remained tough, with firms facing high oil and metal prices.
But it said that both domestic and overseas demand had improved.
"UK manufacturing has made a brighter than expected start to 2012, with PMI data pointing to output growth of around 0.3% in the first quarter," Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said.
"This is obviously nowhere near a strong pace, but it is at least sufficient to prevent the sector from remaining a drag on broader GDP growth.
"Inflows of domestic and export orders also showed some improvement in March, but exporters are having to tap markets further afield as conditions in the eurozone remain lethargic."
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