Construction activity nationwide continued to fall in April as new business decreased further, new figures show. Activity has now fallen in each of the past 47 months and the April fall was the strongest this year so far.
The Ulster Bank construction purchasing managers index fell to 43.7 in April from 46.1 in March.
Each of the three monitored sub-sectors posted a fall in activity, led by civil engineering, which saw its steepest fall since December 2010. Housing activity fell at a much faster pace than in the previous month. The commercial sector saw the slowest reduction in eight months.
As workloads in the construction industry decreased further, firms also cut jobs again last month. Job cuts in the sector have now been recorded throughout the past four years.
The survey shows that input prices rose sharply again in April, extending the current rise of inflation to one year. The rate of increase was the sharpest since July 2008 and were blamed on higher prices for oil and raw materials.
'The ongoing declines in construction stand in marked contrast to the improving trends which have become evident in the internationally-trade sectors of the economy,' commented Simon Barry, Ulster Bank's chief economist.
'The manufacturing and services PMIs have been above the key expansion threshold of 50 for most of the past year, buoyed by strong gains in export orders', he added.
However, he says that despite the clear ongoing weakness in construction, firms in the sector remain hopeful that stability in the broader economy will lead to an improvement in activity over the coming year. Confidence reached its highest level since January 2007 last month.
