CE Barometer April 2015: Confidence surge

Sentiment on the European construction sector spiked upwards in April, building on the positive results seen in February and March.

The CE Climate, an overall measure of confidence in the sector moved up to a balance score of +30.3%, compared to +17.7% in March. The balance figure is the percentage of positive responses minus the percentage of negative responses.

This is the best that indicator of confidence has been for a year.

The sudden jump upwards from the more subdued results in seen earlier this year was due in part to a sharp rise in sentiment about month-to-month work. This is fairly common in April, as better weather means projects can move ahead quicker.

Indeed, in this month’s results, a positive balance of +28.7% of respondents said activity levels were higher in April than in March. A month previously, the score in response to this question was +16.7%.

A more striking turnaround was seen in the number of respondents saying this month’s activity levels were better than those a year ago. In April, this came in at a positive balance of +24.1% of respondents, compared to -4.5% in March.

Meanwhile, a positive balance of +37.9% of respondents said they expected activity levels to be better 12 months from now, compared to this month. This was down slightly from the figure of +40.9% seen in March’s CE Barometer survey, but was still a strong result.

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