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UK construction growth slows in March, confidence surges
Growth in Britain's construction industry slowed in March, hit by concerns about May's national elections, but confidence surged to a nine-year high and there were signs of bottlenecks pushing up costs, a survey showed on Thursday. The monthly Markit/CIPS UK construction purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 57.8 last month after hitting a four-month high of 60.1 in February. Growth lost pace across the industry and the slowdown was most marked in the civil engineering sector, survey compiler Markit said. There were further signs of companies delaying spending decisions ahead of a national election on May 7 and ... (full story)