The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) released its industrial order books balance on Monday. The CBI industrial order books balance dropped to zero in March from +10% in February.

Analysts expected the CBI industrial order books balance to decrease to +9%.

The decline was driven by a stronger pound and a weak economy in the Eurozone.

The CBI's director for economics Rain Newton-Smith said that "sluggish export performance seems to be a headache that won't go away".

He noted that "measures in the budget to support exporters should be a welcome boost for the sector's longer-term prospects".

Volume of output for the next three months fell to +22 in March, down from +25 in February.