THE UK manufacturing industry continued to grow last month, although at a slightly slower pace.

The closely-watched Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's (CIPS) purchasing managers' index, which draws together data from a number of indices to measure overall activity, stood at 54.8 last month.

Although last month's figure was lower than the 55.7 recorded in May, it is still the 12th consecutive month that the index has shown UK manufacturing expanding.

Any score above 50 in the CIPS survey indicates growth, while a figure below 50 indicates a decline.

The figures were once again in contrast to official figures that show the sector to be in decline.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said last month that manufacturing output fell during the first three months of this year.

HSBC economist John Butler said: "The puzzle of this is the surveys have been very optimistic, but the official data has been weak."

Mr Butler said he believed the surveys were a fair representation, although the manufacturing recovery would still be fairly limited.

He said this was due to the weakness of the eurozone - the UK's key export market - and the strength of sterling.