After real GDP growth picked up in the third quarter of 2003, survey evidence on business confidence and the Eurostat flash estimate for real GDP growth in the fourth quarter point to a continuation of the recovery around the turn of the year. While domestic demand remained subdued in 2003, the conditions for some improvement are now in place.
You might say that the profile of residential construction should have been predicted (and in its broad outline was certainly foreseen). What was not foreseen was, first, the size of this fall and, second, the degree of confidence-sapping annoyance with the administration of the GST.