SCOTTISH Chambers of Commerce has highlighted hopes of more sustainable growth north of the Border this year, after its latest survey revealed stronger business investment.

However, it also forecast expansion would likely be slower than in 2014.

The business organisation's latest quarterly survey, published today, shows strong order growth and investment trends in the Scottish construction sector, with housebuilding particularly buoyant.

It shows a sharp slowdown in growth of orders in the Scottish manufacturing sector.

But Scottish Chambers, while acknowledging the impact of weakness in eurozone economies and cautioning that deflation in the single currency bloc could make matters worse, highlighted its survey findings that manufacturers enjoyed strong growth in sales to other export markets.

It also highlighted the fact that 88 per cent of Scottish manufacturers either increased or maintained investment levels in the fourth quarter. And it noted that more than 40 per cent of manufacturers increasing investment did so to increase capacity, significantly higher than the historical average for the sector.

Economists have expressed concerns about the unbalanced nature of the UK recovery, which has been fuelled by consumer spending and a surge in house prices. Business investment and exports have in recent years proved much weaker than the Coalition Government had hoped, with Chancellor George Osborne's March 2011 vision of "a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers" having failed to materialise.

Garry Clark, head of policy and research at Scottish Chambers, said of the survey findings of a pick-up in business investment: "That is extremely good news if we are seeing a pick-up there."

He added: "Potentially, we have got the building blocks there for a more sustainable recovery, even if it is not at the levels of 2014, which would be difficult to match."

Donald MacRae, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, last week estimated the Scottish economy would have grown by nearly three per cent in 2014.

Scottish Chambers' survey, released in collaboration with Strathclyde University's Fraser of Allander Institute, shows the tourism sector north of the Border attracted significantly more visitors in the fourth quarter of last year than in the same period of 2013. There was an increase in visitors from Scotland, the rest of the UK, elsewhere in the European Union, and other overseas countries.

The survey shows the Scottish retail and wholesale sectors, overall, increased sales in the fourth quarter. This was the first rise in 2014.

However, the overall confidence of firms in retail and wholesale fell for a fourth consecutive quarter.

Scottish financial and business services firms recorded strong growth in sales and profits in the fourth quarter, although the rate of increase of investment by this sector slowed.

In the Scottish construction sector, 43.2 per cent of firms achieved a rise in contracts in the fourth quarter and only 5.4 per cent experienced a drop, with the remainder recording an unchanged position.

The survey signals the fastest growth in capital investment by the Scottish construction sector since 2005, with 32 per cent of firms reporting an increase and four per cent posting a decline.

It also points to the fastest growth in housebuilding orders in 10 years.

Nearly 40 per cent of Scottish construction firms increased wages over the fourth quarter. Scottish Chambers noted that average annual wage rises, at 5.5 per cent, remained significantly higher than inflation.

In the Scottish manufacturing sector, 38.7 per cent of firms achieved growth in orders in the fourth quarter and 25.8 per cent experienced a fall. The balance of 12.9 per cent reporting a rise signalled continuing growth but at a much slower pace than in the third quarter, when a net 30.6 per cent of Scottish manufacturers had reported growth in orders.