Building growth picks up in UK

A pick-up in house building helped growth in Britain’s construction sector speed up slightly last month, but the expansion remained weaker than last year’s robust rebound, an industry survey showed yesterday.

The CIPS/Markit construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 57.3 in August from 57.1 in July, indicating solid growth but below the 57.5 forecast in a Reuters poll and the levels of more than 60 regularly reached in 2014.

“UK construction companies remained on a reasonably strong growth footing in August, helped by a sustained recovery in both residential and commercial building activity,” Tim Moore, an economist at survey compiler Markit, said.