星空传媒

Poor weather in December not only hit the construction sector but also slowed the whole economy, which shrunk in size by 0.5% in the final quarter of the year, compared to Q3.

The 3.3% drop in the construction sector virtually reverses the 3.9% increase between 1 July and 30 September.

Despite the recent, expected, drop off in construction sector output, the sector has increased in size since when compared to 2009. Year-on-year growth in the sector is estimated to have been 6.9%, according to today鈥檚 preliminary figures.

The construction sector alone, represented 0.2% of the fall in the wider economy.

While today鈥檚 construction figures will not come as much of a surprise, the 0.5% fall overall is particularly negative, as many economists were expecting further growth.

The ONS blamed the poor economic performance on the bad weather and said: 鈥淭he change in GDP in Q4 was clearly affected by the extremely bad weather in December last
测别补谤.鈥�

鈥淭he disruption caused by the bad weather in December is likely to have contributed to most of the 0.5% decline, that is, if there had been no disruption, GDP would be showing a flattish picture rather than declining by 0.5%.

鈥淲e should emphasise that this assessment of the effect of the bad weather is the best we can make it at this stage, but is still inevitably uncertain.鈥�