CE Barometer June 2012: Confidence still weak

Confidence in the European construction sector was almost unchanged in June from the weak results seen in May. Sentiment remained weak, and although the climate remained positive, it was still by the narrowest of margins.

A balance of +6.6% of respondents said they were busier in June than May, an improvement on the result of +1.0% seen the previous month. However, it was the third month in a row that this measure of confidence had looked unconvincing, at less than +10%. The balance figure is the percentage of positive responses, minus the number of negative ones.

At +10.5% the balance of respondents saying they expected business to be better in a year's time was more encouraging, although this represented a fall from +12.4% the previous month. It was also the lowest this measure of confidence has been this year. It was also the fifth month running that a majority of respondents said they have less work now than they did a year ago.

Combining all these figures into the CE Climate - a broad measure of sentiment - gave a positive balance of +5.0%. This was a slight improvement on May's result, but it showed that the market was at a low ebb compared to earlier in the year.

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