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UK manufacturing contracts for second month in March - PMI
Britain's manufacturing sector shrank for a second consecutive month in March, a survey showed on Tuesday, leaving the country's more resilient services sector as the best hope of avoiding a new recession. The Markit/CIPS manufacturing purchasing managers' index came in at 48.3, only slightly above February's shock reading of 47.9, and a touch weaker than the consensus forecast. The output component of the survey fell in March at its fastest pace since October. The survey suggests manufacturing exerted an even bigger drag on growth between January and March than it did in the fourth quarter of 2012, when it accounted ... (full story)