Another fall in Europe’s construction output

August was the eighth month in a row to register year-on-year declines in construction output in the Eurozone and among member states (EU27), according to the latest figures from Eurostat.

Compared with August 2011, output in August 2012 dropped 5.5% in the Eurozone and 6.8% in the EU27, fuelled by strong year-on-year declines in Portugal (17.3%), Slovenia (14.8%), Slovakia (11.9%) and the UK (11.6%).

Countries registering year-on-year increases in construction output in August included Romania (5.1%), Bulgaria (1.3%), Sweden (1%) and Germany (0.7%).

In terms of sectors, building construction output declined 5.2% in the Eurozone and 6.9% in the EU27, while civil engineering output decreased 7.9% in the Eurozone and 7.5% in the EU27 in August this year, compared to last.

However, a month-on-month comparison showed a slight positive trend. Compared with July this year, overall construction output in August was up 0.7% in Eurozone and 0.2% in the EU27.

The highest increases between July and August were registered in Portugal (10.4%), Italy (5.3%) and Romania (2.8%), while the largest decreases were seen in Hungary (5.3%), Germany (2.8%) and the Czech Republic (1.7%).

In terms of sectors, building construction output increased 1.2% month-on-month in the Eurozone in August, and dropped 0.1% in the EU27. Civil engineering output decreased 0.7% in the Eurozone, but rose 2.2% in the EU27 in August, compared with July.