CE Barometer: Construction sentiment steady in January

Sentiment on the European construction industry was more or less unchanged in January 2016, from the previous month, fitting in with the pattern of a seasonal downturn which began in November.

A balance figure of -6.1% of survey respondents said activity levels in January were lower than in December, an improvement from the level of -13.0% seen a month ago, but still a negative result, indicating falling activity. The balance figure is the percentage of positive responses minus the percentage of negative responses.

But there was still strong sentiment about the future. A balance of 31.3% of respondents said they expected activity levels to be higher in a year’s time compared to this month. This was on a par with the results seen throughout the final quarter of 2015.

And a significant improvement since December was that a positive balance of +11.5% of respondents said they were busier now than a year ago. This compared to the figure of -7.8%, which was recorded in December in response to the same question.

This helped to lift the CE Climate figure – a composite number based on responses to all questions – from just +2.6% in December to +12.2% this month. Again, this was similar to results seen in November and October last year, but was some way below the higher levels of positivity which prevailed over the summer.

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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