CE Barometer February 2011: Strong rebound

February saw the CE Barometer bounce back to respectable levels after January's seasonal downturn, caused by the harsh winter conditions in Northern Europe and the traditional New Year hiatus.

A balance of +29,2% of respondents said they saw month-on-month activity improve in February, a marked turnaround from the negative figure of -4.7% from January. The balance figure being the percentage of positive respondents minus the negative percentage.

This highlights the fact that January's downturn was just a blip in an otherwise sea of buoyant sentiment. At +29,2%, the current measure of confidence is back at the high levels seen in the early part of last year.

The future outlook for the industry remained positive, with a balance of +44,6% of respondents saying they expected activity to be higher in a year's time. This result was about in line with January's figure, and these high levels of future confidence have been a feature of the CE Barometer for more than a year now..

As a result, the CE Climate - an amalgamation of three confidence measures - remained well in positive territory at +35,6%. In fact, this is the highest the CE Climate has been in the current recovery cycle. Late 2007 was the last time this overall measure of confidence was so high.

Take part

CE would like to thank all those that took part in the February survey. It was completed by more than 300 construction professionals in 30 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 15^th of each month on our website. Full information can be found at www.cebarometer.eu