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LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - British construction output wasflat in May compared with April, data showed on Friday,tempering expectations that the country's overall economicgrowth picked up speed during the second quarter.
Output in May dropped 4.8 percent on a yearly basis - hurtby bad weather and an additional working day in May 2012, theOffice for National Statistics said.
Output fell by the same amount in the three months betweenMarch and May compared with the same period in 2012, it said, aslightly less sharp fall than in the first quarter.
The monthly construction data was measured in seasonallyadjusted terms by the ONS for the first time.
The construction industry was hurt by the financial crisisand now accounts for about 6 percent of the economy. Thegovernment has sought to help the sector with various stimulusplans, including the new Help to Buy scheme announced in March.
The construction figures form part of overall gross domesticproduct (GDP).
Britain's economy is widely expected to have grown morequickly in the second quarter than in the first three months ofthe year, when it expanded by 0.3 percent. Despite the overalleconomic growth, construction shrank in the first quarter.
Earlier this week, industrial production and manufacturingfigures for May came in short of analysts' forecasts. Buteconomists still largely stuck to their predictions of economicgrowth of 0.5 or 0.6 percent in the second quarter.
The ONS is due to release a preliminary estimate of GDP inthe second quarter on July 25.
Earlier this month, a survey of purchasing managers showedBritish construction grew in June for a second month in a row.
(Reporting by William Schomberg and Olesya Dmitracova)
