- Prior 57.6
- Housing activity 59.8 vs 59.2 prior
A nice number to start the year and it goes someway to putting a line under the weakness we saw in the last few months of the year.
The data is worth 25 pips so far to cable as it bounces from 1.4995
Employment was the weakest for 13 months and that’s likely to be from the ongoing skills shortage. In fact, reading the report the availability of sub-contractors fell sharply in Jan and sub-con charges we close to the record high from November 2014. That’s been offset by input costs falling to the lowest since Apr 2013.
Tim Moore at Market says that the speed of growth through the recovery may have finished but it’s not the end for construction;
“In short, the peak speed of the construction recovery seems to be over, but reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
UK construction PMI 03 02 2015
