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The Bank of England released construction data yesterday, announcing that industrial output had seen its sharpest fall since June 2009.
The construction data, released by Markit, indicated a material slowdown in the three construction markets – residential, commercial and civil engineering.
Furthermore, the Purchasing Managers Index registered a lower drop than the previous month, down to 45.9 in July from 46.0 in the previous month. Any PMI below 50 indicates a slowdown in commercial building.
Being the first survey of its kind undertaken after the decision to leave the EU through a referendum on the 23rd June, the accelerated decline shows a hesitance in the market to start new commercial building products, and uncertainty in the market, said Tim Moore, Economist at Markit.
Although the data is not as pronounced as that from the recession in the late 2000’s, the UK economy has seen a huge slump post Brexit, and eagerly awaited interest rate and quantitative easing news awaits us this week.
But, when we look at underlying price movements and currency fluctuations, it’s still a positive story for UK exporters. The pound sterling remains at rock bottom lows versus the euro and US dollar, meaning it’s a positive story for tourists and overseas investors putting money into investment, as well as those looking to export abroad.
James Sinclair at Trade Finance Global said: “Now’s an important time to think about and protect your currency and exports from volatile FX movements.”
“We’ve never seen markets react so as a result of the EU referendum. We’d recommend SMEs are cautious about trading overseas, but they can easily protect their business from FX volatility, calculate FX risk and even turn this into a positive opportunity. We’ve created a special currency informational area on https://www.tradefinanceglobal.com/currency to help your business understand currency risk.”
If your business is looking for finance to trade and grow overseas, be sure to check out the Startup Overseas Finance Hub.