
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991                   TAG: 9102260011
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BUILDING-PERMIT VALUES FALL

The value of Roanoke Valley building permits fell 54.7 percent in January, to their lowest level in nearly five years.

Permits issued in January by the localities were for construction worth $4,183,704 compared to $9,249,513 in January 1990, off 79.1 percent from $20,028,521 in December. It was the lowest total since just over $4 million in February 1986.

The number of building permits issued last month was 213 compared with 219 in December and 262 a year earlier.

Other new economic data added to the regional indicators:

> Appalachian Power Co. sold 282,473,648 kilowatt hours of electricity last month, down 13.4 percent from 326,373,284 in January 1990 and up 2.5 percent from December's 275,444,954. The report reflected January's mild weather.

Norfolk Southern Corp. loaded 20,735 coal cars last week, up 0.3 percent from 20,681 during the comparable week last year and up 6.2 percent from the prior week's 19,533.

Local banks cleared checks worth $133,188,650 last week, down 15.3 percent from the prior week's $157,161,768 and down 44.5 percent from last year's $239,901,429.

> Fourth-quarter retail sales fell 3.1 percent from $529.6 million in 1989 to $513.2 million in 1990.

The consumer price index stood at 134.6 points in January compared to 133.8 in December and 127.4 a year ago. - Staff report

by CNB