Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as Trump celebrates the passage of his flagship tax and spending billThe downturn in UK construction is starting to ease, according to new data released this morning.The S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 48.8 from 47.9 in May, reaching a six-month high. It is still below the 50 threshold which represents growth in the market.Yes the overall contraction in industry workloads continues to ease, and housebuilders even saw output rise in June. That’s the good news.But on the other side of the ledger, commercial sector workloads fell sharply, declining at their fastest level since May 2020 - a month when Britain was in the teeth of the Covid pandemic. Infrastructure and civil engineering work contracted even more rapidly.We consider the inability to make modest cuts to welfare spending, which has ballooned in the UK since the 2020 pandemic, underscores the UK government’s very limited budgetary room for manoeuvre. Continue reading...
Full Story