CE Barometer December 2008: Winter blues

Sentiment on the European construction industry stayed low in December, with results of the month's CE Barometer survey again pointing to a recession.

A balance of 35.8% of respondents said activity fell month-to-month compared to November. This negative balance of -35.8% was better than November's result of -44,1%, but was still the second lowest on record. The figure is calculated as the percentage of respondents giving positive responses, minus the number giving negative answers. December was the seventh consecutive month of declines in current activity.

There was also an improvement on future sentiment to -28,0%, compared to -32,6% in November, but again this was one of the lowest results seen in the Barometer's two-year history.

A further indication of falling activity was that a balance of -44,5% of respondents said activity was lower last month than in December 2007 - almost unchanged from November's result. This all meant that the ‘CE Climate' - an amalgamation of results from all three of these questions remained low at -36,1% - only a slight improvement form November's figure of -40,4%.

Take part

CE would like to thank all those that took part in the December survey. It was completed by more than 300 construction professionals in 25 countries around the region.

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 1st to the 15th of each month on our website. Full information can be found at www.cebarometer.eu.