Eurozone construction output down in Dec

According to the preliminary data from Eurostat, seasonally adjusted production in the construction sector in the eurozone fell by 0.2% in December month on month while it increased by 3.2% on a yearly basis.

According to the data, the monthly decrease in December 2016 was mainly due to the fall in building construction by 0.5%. The data also shows that Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria recorded the largest decreases by 4.3%, 3.1% and 2.1% respectively in the production in construction while Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom posted the largest increases respectively by 4.7%, 2.5% and 2.2% on a monthly basis.

The rise in construction in the eurozone on a yearly basis in December was mainly driven by an increase of 6.5% in civil engineering and by 2.5% in building construction, the data reveals. Among the member states, Sweden, the Netherlands and Slovenia recorded the largest increases in production in construction on a yearly basis with 11.2%, 10.4% and 9.1%% respectively while Romania (26.7%), Slovakia (18.5%) and Hungary (14.9%) recorded the largest decreases on year.