LONDON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The British manufacturing sector maintained stable growth in June, according to data released Monday.

The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose slightly in June to 54.4 from 54.3 in May, where above 50 shows growth.

The IHS report noted that while June's positive figure is higher than the levels seen in the early months of this year, it is four points lower than the four-year high reached in November last year, and caps the weakest quarter in the manufacturing sector for 18 months.

Output and new orders in the consumer, intermediary and investment goods industries rose, but the report showed new orders had slowed over the past six months, with manufacturers now looking to inventory building and backlogs of work to maintain higher output.

New orders in the second quarter were at their lowest since the end of 2016.

"The recovery in the manufacturing sector has shifted down another gear as the summer has approached, with the quarter-average of the PMI in Q2 the lowest since Q4 2016," Samuel Tombs, chief British economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, a financial analysis firm said.

Tombs told Xinhua: "The output balance still is consistent with respectable quarter-on-quarter growth in manufacturing output of about 0.5 percent in Q2, but solid growth in output is being sustained through reducing work backlogs at the fastest rate since August 2016, as well as inventory building."

Without a firm pick-up in new orders this rate of growth is not sustainable, said Tombs, and businesses appear to expect growth to slow still further.

Weaker sterling since the Brexit referendum in June 2016 has sent raw material prices up, a hindrance to growth still seen in the figures in input costs which accelerate to 69.2 from 66.4.

"The rate at which manufacturers are increasing their purchases of raw materials is slowing," said Tombs.