Smaller manufacturers have arrested a three-year decline in orders and output as recovery in the sector gathers pace.
A survey by the CBI revealed confidence among firms with fewer than 500 staff to be rising for the first time in two years.
Exporters reported their first quarterly increase in contracts for seven years with smaller firms more optimistic about orders than at any time since July 1996.
But the economic turnaround has not lifted the fortunes of smaller firms as much as larger ones, according to the CBI quarterly survey of small and medium-sized firms.
Tuesday February 17, 2004
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