The Construction Products Association has called on the Chancellor to pave the way so that quantitative easing can be exploited to fund house building. And there seems to be growing backing within the construction sector and without for using the quantitative easing machine as means to increase the number of homes being built.
There is a heightened sense of concern over the fragility of the economy after yesterday’s speech by Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England and the release of its monetary policy committee minutes today. It all fuels the worry that we really are heading back into the deep doodoo. The downsides are obvious. The upside is that this should help to pull inflation down in the medium term, after a series of “special factors” raised the rate to a level not…
A first reading of the latest set of jobs figures provides some encouragement both for the nation at large and for those engaged in construction. Nationally unemployment was down and employment was up, with the rate of those aged 16 or older rising to 70.7% from 70.5% in the three months to March. Encouragingly the improvement came from more full-time employed jobs, rather than from self-employment or part-time work.
Could it be that we are about to witness the beginnings of widening concerns over rising inflation? The Consumer Prices Index “surprise” jump to 3.7% yesterday will certainly increase rumblings in the markets and elsewhere. Although for the time being I suspect attention will be more focused on June 22 and George Osborne’s first budget, which could after all produce some pretty hefty downward pressure on inflation, if the output from the rumour mill has any value. However, if inflation does…
The UK is coming out faster from recession than we thought. But the hole was deeper. That seems to be the message from the statisticians’ latest stab at the nation’s output. The increase in fourth quarter GPD was revised upward from 0.1% to 0.3%, which will cheer many not least the Chancellor. But it seems that new data seeping into the spreadsheets of statisticians at the ONS point to the hole we were in having been bigger, with earlier growth…