London's Economy Today - Issue 175 - March 2017

The overview

• OBR raises growth forecast for 2017
• Unemployment down, but wage growth slows
• Government triggers Article 50

Economic indicators

• New business at London firms increase at slowest pace in seven months with the New Business Index falling from 55.5 to 52.1. An index reading above 50.0 indicates an increase in new orders from the previous month.
• Surveyors report a fall in London’s house prices for 12th month in a row with the RICS Residential Market Survey at -38, down from -27; the net balance was the lowest (ie, most negative) since June 2016.
• London consumers remained optimistic in February with the GfK index of consumer confidence score at +5, which was up slightly from the +4 recorded in January. A score above zero suggests positive opinions; a score below zero indicates negative sentiment.

London’s Economy Today supplement: London's architecture sector

Previous GLA Economics analysis showed the importance of the creative industries to London’s economy. This work builds on that looking specifically at the contribution of London’s architecture sector and finds:

• London’s architecture sector produced £1.7 billion in gross value added in 2015. That was broadly similar in size to the Civil Engineering and Postal & Courier Activities industries. In addition, the architecture sector has grown on average by 7.6 per cent per annum (in real terms) between 2009 and 2015, which was faster than the creative industries and London economy as a whole.
• There were approximately 22,800 jobs in London’s architecture sector in 2015. One-in-four jobs in the UK’s architecture sector were based in London.
• Architecture adds to London’s international competitiveness. For instance, around a third of the total number of jobs in London’s architecture sector were taken by non-UK nationals in 2015.

London’s Economy Today data on the Datastore

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