Key Statistics: 18th September 2012

 Construction

• Mixed news came out of the ONS last week; they revised up their estimate of construction output in the second quarter, construction output contracted by 3% in the period, less than the 3.9% that was previously estimated. The ONS also said that the revision would likely impact the GDP data for the quarter leading to an upward revision of 0.1 percentage points.
• Less positively the ONS also commented that the total volume of construction output for the three months to July this year was 10% lower than the same period last year: New work declined by 14.2% and repair and maintenance fell by 1.2%.
• Over the same period, new social housing decreased by 22.4% and new public other work (excluding infrastructure) fell by 21.5%.
• House prices, as measured by the ONS, for the 12-months to July increased by 2% for the UK as a whole. As ever the regional picture was mixed with greater price rises in London (up 5.7% year on year) compared to other regions, East of England up 2.4%, the ONS also noted that house prices in the North East and North West of England were falling, down 0.5% and 1.3% respectively.

UK Economy

• Annual inflation as measured by the consumer price indices stood at 2.5% in August down from 2.6% in July; downward pressures on the CPI came from household goods and services as well as clothing and footwear.
• Retail price inflation fell to 2.9% for the same period, down from 3.2% in July, downward pressure again coming from household goods and services, clothing and footwear.
• External trade; the UK maintained its trade deficit going into July, importing £1.5bn more goods and services than it exported.