Predictions can be dangerous. This time last year, market experts forecast that private sector spending would fall, but that this would be offset by generous public sector investment. The Construction Products Association estimated that public sector spending, including the PFI, would rise about 4, a finding that was supported by economic consultant Experian. In reality the early indications for 2005 suggest that public sector spending actually fell almost 3. The CPA says this decline knocked 1.3 off the industry's total output in 2005. This was the first contraction in the industry since 1994 and ended the longest period of growth since the 1950s.
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