Britain’s manufacturing sector will enter a technical recession in the next three months if output continues to fall, which could cost 36,000 jobs, according to the Confederation of British  Industry.

The CBI said yesterday it expected manufacturing output to be minus 0.4% in the three months to June and minus 0.5% in the three months to September, pushing the sector into recession for the first time since 2005.

Ian Mcafferty, chief economic adviser at the CBI, said: “Cost pressures have been notable for over four years but, in the past three months, they have been their most intense for nearly three decades, so it comes as little surprise that manufacturers are passing those costs on to customers.”