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LONDON, Dec. 10-- British economic growth prospects are currently bolstered by buoyant growth in manufacturing as the usually dominant services sector undergoes a period of reduced momentum, a London-based economist told Xinhua. "We have good reason to think the manufacturing sector will continue to perform strongly given indicators from more timely surveys," Ruth Gregory, economist with Capital Economics which is an independent macroeconomic research firm in London, said in a recent interview. "Forward looking balances of these surveys point to strong gains in manufacturing in the coming months," Gregory said. "We have also seen surveys of employment intentions remain quite strong, suggesting manufacturing intends to take on new recruits at a fast pace and they are pretty upbeat about the outlook." Growth in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for about 10 percent of GDP, is outstripping service sector growth for only the second time since 2007. Official statistics showed that manufacturing output rose by 1.1 percent on the quarter in the third quarter, well above the 0.4 percent expansion in the services sector. November's Markit/CIPS surveys showed that the manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) outperformed its services counterpart for the eighth month in a row. And figures released last week showed industrial production rose almost 4 percent in manufacturing output on a year earlier, one of the biggest increases since early 2011. | 
