果冻影院

Construction

• National Statistics reported that construction output continued to fall in February, on a volume basis all work including RM&I was down 7% compared to February last year, all new work fell at a faster rate down 8% for the same period.
• Steep declines recorded across many sectors including both private and public housing which fell 7% and 8% respectively. Steep declines were recorded in other public new work as well as commercial and industrial new work.
• Infrastructure was the only sector to see gains in output, new work increased by 1% from last year.
• RM&I work saw gains from infrastructure and other public works both up 4%, falls in output were recoded across all other sectors.
• The RICS house price balance reported last week a net balance in March of -1, i.e. only 1% more surveyors saw prices falling than rising in the month, adding further weight that house prices could be on the rise again.
• Rightmove reported that new seller prices increased by 2.1% in April from March fuelled by seller shortages and positive market sentiment.

UK Economy

• Retail sales as reported by the British Retail Consortium grew 1.9% on a like-for-like basis in March, weaker than February鈥檚 2.7% increase but described as encouraging by the BRC especially in light of the months poor weather.
• The ONS reported that both production and manufacturing fell in February compared to February last year, down 2.2% and 1.4% respectively.
• Manufacturing declines fell fastest in the petroleum products sector, a result of declines in overall UK oil output.
• Coinciding with the poor manufacturing data the trade deficit worsened in February to 拢3.6bn from 拢2.5bn in January. The wider deficit is due to fewer exports of consumer goods, chemicals and oil.