By Max Clarke
After falling to a 49.1 point low in December, the construction sector Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) jumped to 53.7 in January- far exceeding the 49.8 figure forecast.
Jeremy Cook, chief economist at foreign exchange brokers World First, said:
“After the 3.3% fall in the preliminary Q4 GDP reading, this is encouraging news for the construction sector after it took a dip in December.
“This obviously follows the good manufacturing figures we saw yesterday, but all eyes are on tomorrow’s service sector release…
“GBP is rising on this news as are listed house builders…”
After yesterday’s news that the manufacturing sector had jumped by the largest amount since the index began in 1992, calming fears that Britain was entering a ‘double dip’ recession.
However, insolvency specialists RMS Tenon’s predict 2011 will see increasing levels of corporate insolvency which will make the second recession more likely.
