Key Statistics: 30th July 2013

Construction

• Latest figures published by the ONS for Output in the Construction Industry is for Q2 2013, which estimate an increase of 0.9% compared with Q1 2013. In Q1 2013 construction output was at its lowest level since Q1 2001. 
• House prices as measured by the Land Registry rose by 0.8% in June taking the average house price to £162,621.  The region in England and Wales which experienced the greatest increase in its average property value over the last 12 months is London with a movement of 6.9 per cent.
• Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) data shows 625 construction insolvencies in the first quarter of 2013.  Although this is a reduction of 5% on the number recorded in the final quarter of 2012 PwC said that with 5,500 insolvencies recorded in construction in the last two years, the sector remained “among the worst affected out of all industry areas.”

UK Economy

• The ONS Gross domestic product (GDP) figure increased by 0.6% in Q2 2013 compared with Q1 2013. All four main industrial groupings within the economy (agriculture, production, construction and services) increased in Q2 2013 compared with Q1 2013. 
• The largest contribution to Q2 2013 GDP growth came from services; these industries increased by 0.6% contributing 0.48 percentage points to the 0.6% increase in GDP.  Before the sharp fall in output in 2008 and 2009 the economy peaked in Q1 2008. From peak to trough the economy shrank by 7.2%. In Q2 2013, GDP was estimated to be 3.3% below the peak in Q1 2008.
• The Centre for Economics & Business Research (CEBR) forecast on 29th July  that the economy will grow by 1 per cent this year – up from its previous prediction of 0.7 per cent – before accelerating to 1.5 per cent in 2014 as a ¬recovery in the housing market supports an increase in consumer spending.
• Government borrowing fell in the 2012-13 fiscal year, the latest official ONS estimate suggests. Public sector net borrowing, excluding the cost of interventions such as the Royal Mail pension transfer, was revised down to £116.5bn.  It means that total borrowing actually fell, by £2.1bn, from the year before, contrary to a previous estimate in May.