THE decline in UK construction activity accelerated sharply in February to its fastest pace since October 2009, although the housebuilding sub-sector returned to growth, a survey has revealed.
The report, from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), is likely to fuel fears that the UK economy might contract further in the current quarter.
It follows a survey from CIPS on Friday which showed UK manufacturing activity dropped sharply in February. CIPS's survey of activity in the dominant services sector, due today, will be a further key indicator of first-quarter economic activity.
A sharp acceleration in the pace of decline of output in the civil engineering sub-sector, and a renewed tumble in commercial property construction activity drove the overall decline in the sector in February, according to CIPS' survey.
Housebuilding activity, in contrast, achieved modest growth last month, after a long run of decline.
CIPS' construction activity index dropped from 48.7 in January to 46.8 in February on a seasonally-adjusted basis, taking it further below the level of 50 which is calculated by CIPS to separate expansion from contraction.
And the survey also showed an acceleration in the pace of decline of new orders for the UK construction sector.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight, said: "The survey is hugely disappointing, and deals a significant blow to hopes that the long-suffering construction sector may just be beginning to stagger up from its recent very low levels."
Tim Moore, senior economist at financial information company Markit and author of CIPS' construction survey, said: "This is undoubtedly a dismal set of data for the UK construction sector, especially the sharp falls in commercial building work and civil engineering activity."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article