Production in the EU construction sector rose 0.9% in November 2024, compared to the same month a year earlier, new data from Eurostat has revealed. In the euro area, production was up 1.4%, year-on-year.
Production in construction increased by 4.2% in civil engineering in the EU in November, while specialised construction activities were 0.7% higher. However, production was down 0.4% in the construction of buildings.
As to which EU member states reported the biggest annual increases in production in construction, Spain was up 9.8%, followed by Bulgaria (+8.6%), Belgium (+4.2%) and Austria (+3.9%).
The largest annual decreases, meanwhile, were seen in Romania (-9.5%), Poland (-5.4%) and Slovenia (-4.2%), according to the Eurostat data.
Month-on-month data
On a month-on-month basis, however, production in construction increased by 1.2% in the euro area and by 1.3% in the European Union compared to October 2024. This follows a rise of 0.8% in the euro area and 0.6% in the EU in the previous month.
The highest monthly production increases were observed in Slovenia, which was up 9.5%, followed by Slovakia (+5.4%) and Romania (+4.7%). Portugal (-3.9%), Hungary (-2.0%) and Finland (-0.9%) all saw the biggest month-on-month declines.
Civil engineering was up 1.3% on a month-on-month basis in the EU, Eurostat‘s data showed, with specialised construction activities rising by 1.1% and construction of buildings down 0.2%. Read more here.
Last week, data from the ifo Institute revealed that Germany’s residential construction sector is still facing a lack of orders, adding that the industry remains under pressure. In December, 53.6% of firms in the residential construction sector reported a shortage of orders, a slight decrease from 54.0% in November.
