European construction output drops

Double digit year-on-year declines in Slovenia, Portugal and Spain drove Europe's overall construction output down in January, according to the latest figures from Eurostat.

Compared with January 2011, output in January 2012 dropped 1.4% in the Eurozone and 1% in the EU27. The largest decreases were registered in Slovenia (-19.7%), Portugal (-11.9%) and Spain (-11.5%), and the highest increases in Poland (34.2%), Romania (14.9%) and Sweden (7.3%).

Eurozone building construction output declined 0.9% year-on-year, and 0.8% in the EU27, while engineering decreased 1.7% in the Eurozone and 1.4% in the EU27.

And while the month-on-month comparison also revealed dropping output, the figures made for a striking contrast.

Slovenia, which registered the strongest annual decrease in output, reported the highest monthly increase of 17.4%, while Portugal also registered growth of 2.5%.

Germany reported 4.3% growth in construction output between December 2011 and January 2012. The largest monthly decreases were registered in the Czech Republic (-20.1%), the UK (-13.8%) and Italy (-7.8%).

Overall, compared with December 2011, construction output in January fell 0.8% in the Eurozone and 4.1% in the EU27.

Building construction dropped 1.5% month-on-month in the Eurozone and 4.6% in the EU27, while civil engineering output rose 1.6% in the Eurozone, but fell 2.2% in the EU27.