UK building sector activity falls, as house prices drop again; eurozone inflation down – business live – The Guardian

British construction activity fell in December at its sharpest rate since May 2020, as the building sector was hit by rising interest rates and cost pressures.

A closely-watched survey of construction firms has found that activity and new work declined at the quickest rates since May 2020 last month.

Faced with this downturn, construction firms cut jobs for first time since January 2021, and business confidence turned negative, according to the S&P Global/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the construction sector.

This pulled the Construction PMI down to 48.8 in December from 50.4 in November, below the 50 level that separates growth from contraction.

The survey found that housing activity declined for the first time since last July, while civil engineering recorded a sixth consecutive monthly contraction in output. Commercial contruction kept growing, though.

Fears over the economic outlook knocked business confidence into negative territory for the first time since the initial Covid-19 wave in 2020.

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🇬🇧 UK #construction activity fell for the first time since August, as the #PMI reaches 48.8 in Dec (Nov: 50.4) amid contractions in residential and civil engineering sectors. Firms gave a negative outlook for only the 6th time in the survey's history: https://t.co/ZynRTq3tBW pic.twitter.com/38V8uWQw9z

— S&P Global PMI™ (@SPGlobalPMI) January 6, 2023n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/SPGlobalPMI/status/1611302196250918913″,”id”:”1611302196250918913″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”b60354cc-49d0-44c2-8f76-7a4a11992a38″}}”>

🇬🇧 UK #construction activity fell for the first time since August, as the #PMI reaches 48.8 in Dec (Nov: 50.4) amid contractions in residential and civil engineering sectors. Firms gave a negative outlook for only the 6th time in the survey’s history: https://t.co/ZynRTq3tBW pic.twitter.com/38V8uWQw9z

— S&P Global PMI™ (@SPGlobalPMI) January 6, 2023

Dr John Glen, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, warned that builders’ resilient spirits are being drained:

.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The construction sector was stuck in the mud in December with the steepest fall in activity since the beginning of the pandemic in May 2020 and

The original article can be found here

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