Just when you thought economists might finally have got the message about their doom-laden predictions for the economy following the vote for Brexit, along comes another statistic showing they are still getting it hopelessly wrong. I wrote here last month about how the Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers Index – an early indicator of economic growth – had moved into positive territory in August, defying predictions that it would stay below 50, a level which suggests a shrinking economy. There was then, however, still one black cloud – the construction industry element of the index stood at 49.3 in August. That suggested that housebuilders and other construction companies were still suffering from the sniffles even though the rest of the economy had been restored to health.
For September, a poll of economists for Reuters suggested that the construction index would fall further – their averaged estimates came out at 49.0.
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