Low production growth in Europe’s construction sector
A small increase, just 0.1%, was recorded in July, compared to the previous month, the (seasonally adjusted) production in the construction sector in the euro area, and a small decrease again 0.1% in the European Union, during the same period, according to the latest Eurostat data, the EU statistical office.
However, in July this year there was a relative increase in production compared to July 2020, by 3.3% in the euro area and 3.8% in the European Union.
In June 2021, production in the construction sector had decreased by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU compared to the previous month.
In the eurozone in particular, production in the construction sector increased by 0.4% in July compared to the previous month, while production in civil engineering decreased by 1.7%. In the European Union during the same period the production in civil engineering projects decreased by 1.8% and in the construction of buildings increased by 0.3%.
Among the Member States for which Eurostat has data, the largest construction sector report occurred between June and July in Slovenia (-3.9%), Romania (-3.5%) and Austria. The largest increases were recorded in France and Sweden (1.3%) and Germany (1.1%).
Compared to last year, in the euro area, production in the construction sector increased by 3.8%, while civil engineering projects increased by 0.8%. In the EU during the same period production in building construction increased by 4.7% and in civil engineering projects increased by 0.8%.
Among the Member States for which data are available, the largest increase in the construction sector compared to the record in Hungary (22.5%), Austria (13.6%) and Sweden (9.7%) and the largest reductions were recorded in Spain (-13.2%), Slovenia (-8.0%) and Belgium (-3.8%).
The Eurostat announcement does not include updated data for Cyprus and Italy.
SOURCE: KYPE