The volume of construction industry output rose 0.8% year-on-year in April (unadjusted figures), and declined by 1.6% when adjusted for the number of working days, according to data from the Central Statistics Office. In seasonally and workday-adjusted figures, construction industry output rose 2.9% compared with March. In the first four months of the year, total output was down by 13.5% over the first four months of 2007.
Orders continue to remain low. At the end of April, orders for construction companies stood 31.7% lower than a year earlier, with approximately the same rate for buildings and other structures. New contracts signed in the first four months of 2008 represent only a reduction of 3.1% on the orders placed in the corresponding months of 2007, however there is a big difference between the two major branches of the construction industry: new orders for building construction actually fell 28,7%, while contracts for other construction projects grew 41.2% - a number which is largely produced by a major highway construction contract signed in January.
Another important consideration is that last year's massive construction industry slump is almost certain to push each year-on-year growth figure in 2008 into the positive range (with the exception of May, when negative year-on-year growth is expected). This means that a small-scale improvement will translate into higher growth figures compared with last year - even if these higher “growth figures" actually represent a decrease in output. Despite this, the trend willobviously tend to nudge up GDP growth slightly.
No comments:
Post a Comment