How disruptive the snow was?
Well, on Wednesday we will found it out thanks to the so called “short-term” statistics.
Manufacturing had a roaring 2017 and it set a new record for monthly expansions: nine months of uninterrupted growth! As we said in our previous blog, it’s highly likely that the bad weather the entire country experienced at the end of February and beginning of March will have had an effect on manufacturing output. However since the snow disruption was spread across two months, there is still some hope for another month with a positive sign for growth.
The situation for construction cannot be more different. The sector has been in crisis in the entire second half of 2017 after the boom of the first quarter. The last reading saw the ninth consecutive month of three-month on three-month decline with a contraction of 1%. The latest PMI reading (which was actually for March) has also seen the index plunging to negative territory at 47.0 (51.4 in February).
The same release will also include February data for international trade and since the Commonwealth Games have begun, we will delight you with some stats about it! Stay tuned!