BoE policymaker, Catherine Mann, has highlighted the unique and mounting inflation problem that Britain is facing in comparison to the United States and the Eurozone.

Mann pointed to both large-scale price increases and the rising persistence of these underlying pressures as causes for concern. She emphasized, “The gap (between headline and core CPI) that I have in my country is more persistent than the gaps that we see in either of my neighbours, the U.S. or the euro area.”

The gap she refers to is the disparity between headline inflation (which includes volatile commodities like food and energy) and core inflation (which excludes these commodities).

Notably, Mann underscored the role of British businesses and increased wages in maintaining high core inflation. She explains that businesses in the UK have been successful in passing on price rises, contributing to this persistent inflation gap. This, coupled with increased wages, suggests that headline inflation has been slower to recede towards the core rate than it has in other regions.

“There is a gap between the headline, which is incorporating energy which went up really high and now has come down, and core where we do start to see the implications coming through pricing channels, through wage negotiations, into something that is persistent,” Mann explained.

NIESR estimated UK’s GDP remained “flatlined” in the final quarter of 2023. Looking ahead, NIESR forecasts modest uptick in GDP growth for the first quarter of 2024 by 0.2%. This forecast aligns with broader trend observed in UK economy, characterized by “low, but stable economic growth”.

While UK’s GDP showed 0.3% growth in November, a broader look at the three-month period leading up to November paints a different picture. In this timeframe, GDP experienced a -0.2% decline compared to the preceding three months up to August.

“These three-monthly data, which are less volatile than the monthly figures, suggest that the bigger picture remains one of sluggish growth,” NIESR said.

Full NIESR release here.

UK’s construction sector is experiencing a significant setback, as evidenced by the sharp fall in PMI Construction index to 45.0 in September, a level not seen since May 2020 and far below the anticipated 49.9.

The report shows a distinct contraction in the industry, with residential work plunging to an index of 38.1, indicating the steepest decline amongst all sectors. Civil engineering activity isn’t faring much better, posting a 45.7 index, while commercial building has shown some resilience, albeit still in the contraction zone at 47.7.

Tim Moore, Economics Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, paints a grim picture of the current state of the sector. “Output levels declined across the UK construction sector for the first time in three months during September, and the latest downturn marked the worst overall performance since the early stages of the pandemic,” he stated.

The future outlook for the construction sector does not instill confidence. Moore points out that the survey’s forward-looking measures have remained somewhat pessimistic. “Order books decreased at an accelerated pace and business activity expectations eased to the lowest so far this year,” Moore explained. The decrease in project starts has led to an increase in sub-contractor availability, reaching levels not seen since the summer of 2009.

Full UK PMI Construction release here.