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Construction production (volume) index overview

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Data extracted in October 2023.

Planned article update: October 2024.


Highlights


Line chart showing construction production. Two lines represent the EU and euro area over the years 2005 to 2023 based on calendar and seasonally adjusted data. The year 2015 is indexed at 100.
EU and euro area, Construction production, 2005-2023, monthly data, calendar and seasonally adjusted data (2015=100)
Source: Eurostat (sts_copr_m)

The production index for construction is a business cycle indicator which measures monthly changes in the price adjusted output of construction. The construction production index corresponds to the industrial production index but covers (parts of) NACE section F.

Please also see the monthly Eurostat News Release from 20 March 2024.


Full article

Construction output in Europe

Until the end of 2006, construction output in Europe increased rather steadily; but with the economic and financial crisis, output began to decline quite dramatically. Between January 2008 and Spring 2013, the level of total construction in the EU was more or less in constant decline (apart from a short peak in summer 2010). In total, the index lost more than 30 percentage points (pp). From spring 2013 the index of construction production in the EU relatively steadily increased and reached over 80 % of the former peak level. However, in March and April 2020, the index declined dramatically and lost almost 30 pp in just 2 months. In May 2020 a recovery set in, yet, according to the latest data the index levels are still only at a level which had already been reached in 2005/2006. The development in the euro area is quite similar to the development of the EU (Figure 1).

Line chart showing indexed construction production. Two lines represent the EU and euro area over the years 2005 to 2023 based on calendar and seasonally adjusted data. The year 2015 is indexed at 100.
Figure 1: EU and euro area, Construction production, 2005-2023, monthly data, calendar and seasonally data (2015=100)
Source: Eurostat (sts_copr_m)

There are noticeable differences between the development of the construction of buildings (residential and non-residential), which accounts for around three-quarters of total construction in the EU, and the development of the construction of civil engineering works (e.g. railways, roads, bridges, airport runways, dams). For the latter, the immediate effects of the financial and economic crisis were less marked than for the construction of buildings. However, in the years between 2010 and 2013, civil engineering also declined substantially. Since 2013, both areas showed a relatively strong recovery which ended with the Covid-19 crisis in March 2020 (Figure 2).

Line chart showing indexed construction production per type of construction in the EU. Three lines represent construction, buildings and civil engineering over the years 2005 to 2023. The year 2015 is indexed at 100.
Figure 2: EU, Construction production per type of construction, 2005-2023, monthly data, calendar and seasonally adjusted data (2015=100)
Source: Eurostat (sts_copr_m)

The financial and economic crisis in the building sector hit all EU countries albeit to a different extent. All countries experienced a decline in building production, ranging from an extreme reduction of -48.2 % in Lithuania in 2009 to stable activity levels in Germany and Luxembourg. In Poland the index of construction production even showed an increase of more than 4 % for this year. In several countries (e.g. Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, and Portugal) growth rates had already begun to move downwards before 2009, while in several other countries the drop in building activities happened in a more sudden way and was shorter (Table 1).

For the EU as a whole, negative rates of change persevered over the years 2010 to 2013. During the following years, positive growth rates could again be registered for EU construction. Mainly as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting containment measures, construction activities dropped massively in 2020 (-4.7 % in the EU and -5.3 % in the euro area). A large majority of countries registered a negative rate of change. Some countries however grew during the year of the pandemic (Denmark, Germany, Croatia, Latvia, Malta, Romania and Finland). In Romania construction activities even increased by 16.0 %. For 2021 growth rates were mainly positive – to a large extent the result of the low values of the year before. In 2022 the recovery continued albeit at a relatively slow pace.

Table showing percentage annual rates of change for total construction in the EU, euro area, individual EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia for the years 2005 to2022.
Table 1: Total construction, annual rates of change, 2005-2022, calendar adjusted data
Source: Eurostat (sts_coprgr_a)

Table 2 provides a breakdown of the total construction into buildings and civil engineering work. In most countries the construction of buildings was more strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic than civil engineering work. In a number of countries, the latter even increased in 2020 while building construction fell. In 2021, both sectors recorded relatively strong growth rates. In 2022, rates were somewhat lower.

Table showing percentage annual rates of change for construction of buildings and civil engineering in the EU, euro area, individual EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania for the years 2005 to2022.
Table 2: Construction of buildings and civil engineering, annual rates of change, 2015-2022, calendar adjusted data
Source: Eurostat (sts_coprgr_a)

Data sources

The obligation to transmit construction production data to Eurostat is laid down in Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152 of 27 November 2019 (European Business Statistics Regulation) and in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020. Like the industrial production index the construction production index is intended to reflect the monthly volume value added of the construction sector. This variable is however not directly observable and must therefore be approximated by other measures such as deflated gross production or input of labour and raw materials.

Eurostat publishes, on a monthly basis, the construction production index for the EU, for the euro area and the Member States; data are also collected for Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia. Data are presented in calendar adjusted/working-day adjusted and in seasonally adjusted form. Rates of change are also available. The data in this article were calculated with 2015 as the base year (=100). As of March 2024 short-term statistics data use the base year 2021.

Context

The EU construction sector accounts for more than 5 % of (gross) value added. Although the relative share of construction in Europe's economic activity has declined over recent years, construction is still of high importance for European economies. The indices for the development of construction output is therefore an important tool for the European Central Bank and the national central banks for monitoring and analysing economic developments. Production in construction is one of the so-called 'Principal European Economic Indicators (PEEI)' which are used to monitor and steer economic policy in the EU and in the euro area.

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