CE Barometer January 2015: Sentiment improves

Sentiment on the European construction sector strengthened a little in January, according to the latest CE Barometer survey.

It is common for a slowdown in construction over the winter, and this was evident in December’s results. The improvement in January may be due to the relatively mild conditions in many parts of Europe.

Current activity slowed in January, with a balance of -9.5% of respondents saying they were less busy than the previous month. However, this was not as severe as the -16.5% result seen in December. The balance figure is the percentage of positive responses, minus the percentage of negative ones.

But on the positive side, sentiment about the future became much more robust. A balance of +44.2% of respondents said they expected activity levels to be higher in a year’s time than now. This compared to December’s result of just +20.5%.

Similarly, a positive balance of +11.6% of respondents said they were busier this January than a year ago, compared to the negative result of -1.2% in December.

This all boosted the CE Climate, and overall measure of confidence. This was up to +15.4% in January, having been down to just +0.8% in December – the lowest it had been since the winter of 2012/13.

Take part

The survey, which takes just a one minute to complete, is open to all construction professionals working in Europe. The CE Barometer survey is open from the 1^st to the 15^th of each month on our website. Full information can be found at www.cebarometer.eu