黑洞社区

The outlook for the construction industry has worsened in light of this week鈥檚 financial turmoil, the Construction Products Association said this week.

The last CPA forecast was published at the beginning of July with the next due in early-to mid-October.

However, its economics director Noble Francis told 黑洞社区 that this week鈥檚 15% nosedive in the FTSE 100 index and the downgrading of the United States鈥� AAA rating, by ratings agency S&P, had added to growing economic pessimism.

The comments follow this week鈥檚 downgrading of the Bank of England鈥檚 UK growth estimates.

鈥淭here has been increasing pessimism over the past six to eight weeks,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the volatility of the stockmarket is the key factor but it adds to the uncertainty and reduces consumer confidence.

鈥淚t also means that it is more likely that lending from financial institutions will not improve.鈥�

鈥淭here is data suggesting that things were slowing down in the second quarter,鈥� he said.

There was slightly better news for civil engineers as the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) announced there were signs of a stabilisation of workloads.

The figures, collected as part of the second quarterly edition of the CECA Workload Trends Survey 2011, showed that civils contractors experienced a 9% decline in workload in the three months to June 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.

This was against a 27% decline for the previous quarter. The CECA also said it had seen other signs of improvement in the sector.

CECA director of external affairs Alasdair Reisner said: 鈥淥ptimism is in short supply but these figures do offer some hope that a return to growth may be on the cards in the next quarter.鈥�