Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said the divergence between the two sets of figures raised "considerable doubts" about the accuracy of the official construction data.
Asked what he noticed at Tokyo's show, Tom Kowaleski Tom Kowaleski, GM's executive director of product communications, said simply, "Divergence".
From this point of view, as he and others have said, the divergence will not be a temporary phenomenon but permanent.
Ms. Smith said the divergence between the city and the rest of the state was largely attributable to continued cutbacks on Wall Street and the ripple effect of the loss of those high-paying jobs.
Chris Williamson of Markit said: "Worryingly, the divergence between Germany and France so far this year is the widest in the survey's 15-year history".
Traders said the continuing divergence between market measures was not a good sign.
Peter Patterson, deputy chief economist at the ONS, said: "The striking divergence between employment and pay continues.
He says the divergence is "symptomatic of deep-rooted and persistent uneven economic development, with jobs and growth concentrated in London and the south-east".
"If you start talking political parties, there's a lot of divergence," she said.
Even if the two groups do submit separate proposals, they are likely to be quite similar with only a few points of divergence, another official said.
