What had not been achieved for several consecutive months finally happened at the very end of the year. Construction output recorded positive numbers after a long 9-month decline. The growth in December was even the result of the highest volume of construction production in 2020.
The improvement at the end of the previous year was mainly due to an increase in engineering construction production. This sector was the main driver of construction even before the outbreak of the pandemic, which had pushed construction output into negative figures. These declines appeared in statistics for several months in a row. A turnaround came only with the December figures, which were published yesterday by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (ŠÚ SR).
Construction Output Increased Both Monthly and Annually
€556 million – that was the monthly volume of construction output produced by the Slovak construction sector in December of last year. Since this was the highest result in construction production since November 2019, it also had an impact on both monthly and annual comparisons. In the first case, growth reached 9.1%. Year-on-year, the volume increased by 2.1%.
Full-Year Results Showed a Double-Digit Decline
Despite the positive figures from the final month, they were not enough to reverse the overall year-on-year decline in the total volume of construction output for all 12 months of 2020. Slovak construction companies produced a total volume of only €5.3 billion during this period. Compared to 2019, this resulted in a significant annual drop of 11.3%.
Text: Róbert Bosák
Source: slovak.statistics.sk