Britain’s construction sector has enjoyed its strongest pick-up in business

游客2023-08-24  25

问题     Britain’s construction sector has enjoyed its strongest pick-up in business since before the financial crisis plunged the industry deep into recession, according to the latest in a string of upbeat economic reports. House builders were at the forefront of the sector’s resurgence(复苏)as they saw activity grow at the fastest pace for a decade last month, according to the Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI.
    Civil engineers and commercial construction firms also helped the sector claw back some of the ground lost during its slump and companies across the sector took on more staff as new work flowed in. The survey’s headline activity index rose more than expected to 62.6 after 59.4 in October. That marked the seventh month of growth and beat a forecast for a slowdown to 59 in a Reuters poll of economists.
    "Construction activity continues to spring back to life during the final months of 2013," said Tim Moore, senior economist at survey compilers Markit. "That said, construction growth is still coming from a low base as output levels rebound from a deep and prolonged double-dip recession that only really ended this summer. "
    While economists and policymakers will want to see the survey’s rosy picture confirmed in official data in coming months, it is a welcome boost to chancellor George Osborne as he prepares to present his autumn statement plans for growth, spending and taxes.
    The construction report follows a much stronger than expected Markit survey from the manufacturing sector, which makes up around a tenth of the UK economy. That poll suggested new orders were growing at the fastest pace for 20 years and that manufacturers were creating 5 000 new jobs a month.
    In the smaller construction sector, there were also multi-year highs in key fields. Output, employment and new work all rose at their fastest pace since 2007. Anecdotal(轶事的)evidence from the survey, which is sent to some 170 construction companies, suggested business was being helped by rising confidence in the economic outlook and improving credit conditions. Confidence among builders about the business outlook was the highest for four years.
    Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight commented:"The construction sector does now seem to be enjoying decent, and increasingly broad-based, recovery following extended, deep weakness. "
    Of critical importance to the construction sector going forward is that the economy holds up well over the coming months and that housing market activity sees sustained healthy(but not excessive)growth. The first stage of the government’s Help to Buy initiative has been particularly welcome for house builders. [br] What does the rise of the activity index suggest?

选项 A、Many British economists’ predictions are unreliable.
B、British construction sector develops dramatically slow.
C、British construction sector is undergoing sustainable growth.
D、There are more new jobs created in British construction sector.

答案 C

解析 细节推断题。定位句中出现的三个数字62.6、59.4和59表明建筑业活动的增长不仅超出预期值59,而且在达到59.4后继续增长至62.6。定位句还提到,建筑业连续增长七个月,这说明英国建筑业的增长是可持续的。因此C)正确。A)“许多英国经济学家的预测是不可靠的”这一论断太绝对,因为文章本意是要表达“建筑业发展速度太快,超乎想象”,而不是侧重“经济学家的预测”,故排除;B)“英国建筑业发展极其缓慢”,与文章主题背道而驰,故排除;D)“英国建筑业创造了更多新的就业岗位”是该行业发展的活动现象之一,不具有普遍性,故排除。
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