Building's panel of economic experts

摘要

The latest construction output release from the ONS told a familiar story of monthly declines set against longer-term growth. This indicates that the industry remains in fairly good health despite the increasing number of negative headlines on construction and the UK economy. The industry declined by 0.3% in February compared to January but grew by 0.3% compared to February last year. What interested me most in these figures is that the private housing sector remains the major constituent of growth within construction. In fact, in February it was the only sector that exhibited monthly growth and when compared to last year the level of output in new private housing increased by 10.6%. In the same period private commercial was the only other sector that grew and that was by a measly 0.4%.