The pound fell against the dollar and the euro on Monday after an unexpected slowdown in British services sector activity and a drop in manufacturing output. The CIPS/ services sector purchasing managers' index fell to 58.7 in March, still showing expansion but below both forecasts and the 59.5 registered in February. Manufacturing output for February also contracted by 0.6 percent to stand just 0.2 percent higher on the year. David Page, economist at Investec Securities, called the manufacturing numbers disappointing. "While most of the UK economy is recovering, manufacturing remains in the doldrums. This serves as a reminder as to why the (Bank of England) is likely to take its time before pushing through further rate hikes," he said. Sterling slipped after the data to 66.30 pence per euro from around 66.16 beforehand and then continued to slide to 66.45, a quarter of a percent weaker on the day. On the dollar sterling fell to the day's low at $1.8226 after the data from around $1.8275 beforehand and was trading around $1.8250 by 0900 GMT, down a third of a percent.///