Falling construction output continues across Europe

Compared with April 2012, construction output in April this year fell 6.6% in the Eurozone and 5.9% among all member states (EU27), according to the latest data from Eurostat.

This means April continues Europe’s long-term trend of falling construction output, precipitated by the economic crisis of 2008.

The largest year-on-year decreases for April were registered in Poland (25.1%), Portugal (24.4%), Slovenia (19.3%) and Spain (15.3%). The strongest increases were seen in Hungary (9.8%), Bulgaria (3.9%) and Sweden (2.5%).

In terms of sectors, building construction output decreased 6.1% in the Eurozone and 5.2% in the EU27 year-on-year in April, while civil engineering fell 8.1% and 8.3% respectively.

Monthly increases

Comparing April with March this year, construction output was up 2% in the Eurozone and 0.9% in the EU27. The highest month-on-month increases were registered in Germany (6.7%), Portugal (5.9%) and Italy (5.5%), while the strongest declines were seen in Poland (5.2%), Romania (3.7%) and Spain (3.1%).

Building construction output was up 1.1% in the Eurozone month-on-month in April, 0.7% in the EU27. Civil engineering output was up 3.9% and 0.8% in the EU27.