by business editor Trevor Sturgess

New business growth across Kent and the south east has outpaced the national average - but job creation is flat.

According to the latest Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data from Lloyds TSB, the region maintained a solid rate of new business expansion in the first three months of the year.

But this growth was not reflected in extra jobs and there were signs in March that expansion had slowed.

The south east had posted the strongest increase in new business of all UK regions during February, but was overtaken by London, Yorkshire and Humber as well as the West Midlands in the latest period.

The south east's rate of new business expansion eased slightly since February, but was still the second-strongest over the past year.

Although new business rose solidly in March and employment was unchanged, the volume of outstanding business continued to decline.

However, the south east posted the second-slowest rate of decline of all regions.

Input prices rose for the eighth month in a row. Firms reported higher prices for fuel, foodstuffs, utilities and labour.

Prices charged for final goods and services rose for the fourth successive month, although at the weakest rate over that period.

Phil Beales, area director for Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking in Kent and East Sussex (pictured above right), said: "The south east maintained a slow but steady rate of output growth in March. Backlogs of work continued to fall, but at the second-slowest rate of all UK regions.

"This suggests that the ongoing new business growth is starting to put pressure on capacity, and could lead to job creation in the coming months.

"While employment levels remained unchanged last month, this was on the back of strong workforce growth at the start of the year."