CBI SURVEY POINTS TO SURGE IN U.K. OUTPUT British manufacturers expect output to grow rapidly in the four coming months, a Confederation of British Industry (CBI) survey shows. The CBI's monthly trends survey for March shows that 43 pct of the 1,685 polled U.K. Firms expect to raise output in the next four months. Only nine pct expect output to fall while 47 pct said production would likely remain unchanged. The CBI said the positive balance between firms expecting production to rise and those forecasting a fall, at 34 pct, was the highest such figure recorded since 1977. In the CBI's February survey, 37 pct of companies expected a rise in output while 54 pct forecast production would remain at present levels and eight pct expected production to drop. The survey also showed that 23 pct of the polled companies consider current order books to be above normal while 58 pct view them as normal and only 19 pct regard them as below normal. This was the highest positive balance since the question was first asked more than 10 years ago, the CBI said. In February, the figures were 24 pct, 22 pct and 54 pct respectively. Companies also rated their export possibilities higher. Of all polled companies, 23 pct rated their export order books to be above normal and 53 pct described them as normal while only 23 pct believed export orders were below normal levels. In February, 25 pct thought their export books were below normal and 50 pct believed them to be about normal. At 23 pct, the proportion of companies rating their export books above normal was unchanged between February and March. On prices, the survey showed that 62 pct of companies expect average prices at which domestic orders are booked will remain unchanged in the coming four months, up from 57 pct in February.