UK manufacturing sector PMI rises to mid-2014 high in March

Activity in the UK’s manufacturing sector recovered to a mid-2014 high in March, according to one the of the most widely-followed surveys.

Markit’s manufacturing sector purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 54.4 from 54.0 in the month before.

That was exactly as expected by economists.

The average reading for the first quarter of 2015 came in at 53.8, its beast reading since the second quarter of last year.

“Price pressures emanating from the sector also remained on the downside, as input costs and output charges both fell,” the survey compiler pointed out.