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Tag: Office of National statistics

Plant hire prices dip slightly despite upturn in construction

Plant hire prices dip slightly despite upturn in construction

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics for the third quarter of this year show that construction plant hire prices have not risen despite the recent upturn in construction activity and the widening view that the recovery is gathering pace. Prices remain at a level not far above the lowest for the past decade, having dipped 0.4% in the third quarter. Prices were, however, up 0.5% on the third quarter a year earlier. But this is scant consolation given…

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Explanations on why the jobs figures and output figures don’t seem to match

Explanations on why the jobs figures and output figures don’t seem to match

The Office of National Statistics has released an article that throws some light on the figures for construction jobs. I for one have been rather confounded by the construction jobs figures which seem to have understated the devastation on the ground, particularly in the wake of the collapse in house building. Indeed I have also been a bit bamboozled by the construction output figures for a similar set of reasons. While this article doesn’t put to rest all my concerns,…

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Is this deflation I see before me? Why prices are rising faster than the inflation rate

Is this deflation I see before me? Why prices are rising faster than the inflation rate

I am not sure about you, but I sometimes have to go to the back numbers to make sense of the statistics that get thrown at me. I have been for some months a bit curious as to why the brightest brains (well some seriously well paid experts) among the UK economists have consistently been wrong in their prediction of inflation, each time overstating the fall in the headline figure. Again this month, they expected the Consumer Price Index to…

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