Hungary‘s construction output fell by 12.2% year on year in July 2026, due to a decline in new orders, according to new data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH).
Construction output was 4.6% lower on a month-on-month basis, i.e. compared to June 2026.
Sector by sector
Output linked to buildings decreased by 10.7% compared with the same month a year earlier, while civil engineering output fell by 14.0%.
Within building construction, output was 12.6% lower than a year earlier, while civil engineering output declined by 35.8%. Specialised construction activities, which have the largest weight among the construction divisions, recorded a 0.5% increase.
A drop in civil engineering work was particularly affected by transport and utility-related projects. The volume of road and railway construction fell by 26.2%, while utility projects declined by 52.2%.
These two categories made negative contributions of 14.5 and 19.5 percentage points respectively to the performance of their relevant divisions, KSH noted.
Volume of new contracts
Elsewhere, the volume of new contracts concluded by construction enterprises was 24.8% below the level recorded in July 2025. Contracts for building construction fell by 29.5%, while new contracts for civil engineering works declined by 20.2%.
Despite the fall in new orders, the stock of contracts held by construction enterprises at the end of July was 0.8% higher than a year earlier. The composition of the order book was mixed: the stock of building contracts was 1.9% lower, while the stock of civil engineering contracts was 1.9% higher.
Construction output across Hungary has varied significantly on a month-to-month basis in recent months – in March, the volume index was 108.4% of the same month a year earlier, before falling to 103.6% in April, 97.2% in May and 98.8% in June. The July index was 87.8% on the corresponding-period basis, reflecting the 12.2% annual decline. Read more here.
