The latest survey by the surveyors’ body RICS appears to add as much uncertainty as it does clarity over which way and how fast the housing market is shifting. The headline figures suggest that house prices fell in January, but at a slower rate that in December. Is this good news or bad news?
Taking the latest monthly construction survey from the buyers’ body CIPS at face value we could be tempted into thinking all is looking well set for the year. The overall index bounced sharply back from 49.1 to 53.7 – that means from below the 50 no change mark to a figure that suggests reasonably sound growth. And, says the survey release, there was not just a boost to work done but a rise in new business. More encouragingly optimism among…
The latest construction survey put together by Markit for the buyers’ professional body CIPS suggested that there are growing signs of substantial increases in the input prices faced by construction companies in the UK. It reckoned that the rate of inflation was the fastest in seven months and above long-run series average. The survey panellists attributed this to the rise in raw material prices. I’m not sure how they work out with any great certainty the comparative rate of inflation, given the…
The latest combined construction trade survey compiled by the Construction Products Association has thrown up an unexpected and confusing result showing contractors working less in the second quarter of the year. This is significantly at odds with the official data suggests. The result of the contractor survey shows 20% more firms did less work than did more in the second quarter. The ONS construction figures point to a rise of more than 6% in output in that period. This begs…
The latest construction index from the buyers’ body CIPS shows growth in construction in May sped up slightly. The overall activity index rose from 58.2 to 58.5. That suggests a respectable amount of growth (see graph) given that anything above 50 is growth. However while the figures are positive now there appears to be little appetite to consume hopes that growth will continue. As the chief executive officer of CIPS, David Noble, says: “Civil engineering is a clear case in…
How ironic that just as the construction industry is sucking in its tummy and preparing for savage cuts the latest survey by the buyers’ body CIPS shows some of the strongest growth experienced over the past decade. As can be seen from graph on the right the current level of the index suggests a growth rate that would have been well received at most times in the period from 2000 to the credit crunch. The survey suggests that activity in the…
So the construction activity indicator produced by the buyers’ body CIPS finally points to growth after two years of measuring falling workloads. But this seemingly uplifting moment appears to have brought little joy. The March figure popped its head above the 50 no-change mark on the back of rising activity in the housing and commercial sectors. But the survey also found more and deeper job cuts within the industry and there was a drop in the confidence within firms over…
The latest set of figures from the buyers’ body CIPS shows that construction remains mired in recession and the general pattern painted by the numbers provides little scope for optimism. The level of incoming orders fell for the third month in a row, says the report. And this will be from a low base. It all rather poses the question: where to from here? It is perhaps ironic, given the figures, that the survey shows expectations for activity over the next…
Here’s a question I ponder quite a bit. Why do the official figures show that construction grew in the second and third quarters of last year when to everyone else construction has remained mired in the slough of a nasty recession? Puzzling isn’t it. Even more puzzling that the estimates for construction’s contribution to the GDP data suggest the industry’s output was stable in the fourth quarter of 2009. What is even more puzzling for me is that the CIPS/Markit…
The buyers’ body CIPS has released its first construction statistics of the New Year and they show the industry continuing to decline in December. The construction index finished the year on 47.1, below the 50 no-change mark for the 22nd consecutive month. But there was some good news. The housing index remained positive for the fourth month running and growth appears to be strengthening. Meanwhile optimism among purchasing managers about future activity rose slightly. But as the graph shows the…