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Construction industry is £1 billion smaller as official growth rate is trimmed

Construction industry is £1 billion smaller as official growth rate is trimmed

Construction growth is far less than it was thought to be a month ago, according to the latest official statistics. And that means UK plc growth was probably slower that we thought too. The latest figures suggest that output growth for construction in the second quarter of this year was about 6.8% and not the 9.6% previous penned in. Meanwhile second third quarter growth came in at 4%, which was more or less in line with the estimate for UK construction…

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10 things that might be causing weirdness in the construction output figures

10 things that might be causing weirdness in the construction output figures

Can we accept unquestioned the construction figures presented by the latest preliminary estimate of UK economic growth? To do so is to accept that construction is enjoying workloads at a level that just three years ago were close to pushing the industry’s capacity to its limits. What’s more the rate of growth being enjoyed by construction – 14% or so over six months – is seen by many who follow the numbers as astonishing and for some incredible. But before launching…

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Construction growth continues to roar, but can you hear it?

Construction growth continues to roar, but can you hear it?

The UK economy grew twice as fast as the growth rate expected by experts, according to the latest preliminary estimate of gross domestic product. The GDP figure rose 0.8%, which is above trend growth and well above the 0.4% figure which was being touted as the average of the growth rates expected by experts. This suggests annual growth of 2.8%. A significant part of the recent growth spurt is down to the contribution that construction is thought to have had….

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It’s official – construction has never had it so good

It’s official – construction has never had it so good

Construction is booming and there was more construction work undertaken in Britain in the three months to August than in any quarter ever recorded – and that is after the statisticians revised down the figures for June and July by £400 million or so. No I am not dreaming. That is what the latest figures from the national statisticians at ONS suggest. According to the constant 2005 prices data in the latest figures there was £27,692 million of construction work…

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Infrastructure is 40% bigger than we thought it was

Infrastructure is 40% bigger than we thought it was

Construction output grew in cash terms in July, despite the expectations of many analysts that the figures would start to show a dip in the month. And, by the way, the industry is actually 3.5% bigger than we thought it was a month ago, despite contractors making about £300 million less than we thought a month ago. That is one interpretation of the main points to be extracted from output figures released today. And if you think that is odd…

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Newport: We have a problem…

Newport: We have a problem…

The construction output figures continue to provide more than a feast of food for thought, not least because they suggest a rise of 8.6% in output between the first and second quarter of this year. This is a quarterly rise on a scale not seen in construction since 1963, when the industry had to pull itself out of a standstill caused by the worst blizzards for more than 200 years. Frankly for many the figure of 8.6% is in the…

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No spring bounce in work say contractors… despite official figures showing a huge jump

No spring bounce in work say contractors… despite official figures showing a huge jump

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…

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Did construction really propel the UK economy this spring?

Did construction really propel the UK economy this spring?

I have just spent a gruelling chunk of the morning trying to square the GDP figures with the construction output figures, dogged by a mild hangover and a glitch in the numbers. I hadn’t intended to dive into the figures until a bit later, but I took a “have you seen the figures?” call this morning and so was obliged to get the brain in gear a shade earlier than it felt necessary. The thing is that a huge slice…

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It’s a double-dip recession for construction, if the statisticians’ first stab at growth is right

It’s a double-dip recession for construction, if the statisticians’ first stab at growth is right

Construction has fallen into a double-dip recession – that is if the preliminary estimates by the statisticians putting together the first quarter 2010 gross domestic product figures are to be believed. The preliminary GDP figures put growth at a pallid 0.2% for the economy as a whole. This low level of growth will be a huge worry for construction if the figure is not revised upward in later estimates. In fairness the chances of a revision upward in this data…

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Forecasts point to a tough and risky road ahead for construction

Forecasts point to a tough and risky road ahead for construction

The latest Experian forecast is out today and it paints a broadly similar, albeit slightly more optimistic, picture to that of the recently released forecast from the Construction Products Association. The main point of departure is on the views towards housing. Here the Experian forecasters are more bullish, if you can say that about a market that even by 2012 is expected to be almost 30% smaller than it was before the credit crunch. Experian’s expectation of a faster improvement…

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