- Prior 53.2
UK construction growth falls to a three-month low as business activity grinds to a halt amid subdued demand conditions and reduced risk appetite among clients. Of note, business expectations were seen at their weakest since May 2020 as the outlook deteriorates heading into the end of the year. S&P Global notes that:
"Stalling house building activity contributed to the weakest UK construction sector performance for three months in November. Survey respondents noted that new residential building projects had been curtailed in response to rising interest rates, cancelled sales and worries about the economic outlook.
"Construction growth was largely confined to the commercial segment, but even here the speed of expansion slowed considerably since October as client confidence weakened in response to heightened business uncertainty. At the same time, a lack of new work to replace completed projects resulted in another fall in civil engineering activity.
"The number of construction firms anticipating a rise in overall business activity during the year ahead exceeded those forecasting a decline by only a very fine margin during November. Moreover, disregarding a three-month period of negative sentiment at the start of the pandemic, our survey measure of business expectations across the construction sector was the joint-weakest since December 2008."
/GBP
