It should be mentioned that this is a monthly advance, rather than an annual one. More exactly, construction sector production rose in June by 9.3 percent, compared to the previous month. This is the first monthly growth this year. The construction market declined by 1.1 percent in May, 9 percent in April, 2.9 percent in March, 2 percent in February, and 3.4 percent in January 2009. Romania is followed by Bulgaria, with +1.5 percent, Poland, with +1.2 percent, and the Czech Republic, with +1 percent. At the opposite end, the most significant declines were reported in Sweden (-3.8 percent), Portugal (-3 percent), and Slovakia (-2 percent). However, it must be mentioned that Eurostat centralized data for only 11 of the 27 EU member states. On the whole, compared to the previous month, the construction sector reported a 3.3 percent drop for the EU and 1.1 percent for the Euro zone.
Annual reports are much closer to the current context. As such, construction sector activity in June 2009 dropped 6.2 percent, compared to the same month last year, making it the fifth-highest decline in the EC. The only year-on-year rises in June were in Germany, of 1.2 percent, and Poland (0.6 percent). The decline for the entire community was 14.1 percent year-on-year, while that in the Euro zone was 8.8 percent.
In spite of this month’s advance, Romanian entrepreneurs are not at all optimistic, as they believe that these figures are rather an intermediary result. “This is an intermediary result. I do not believe this is a trend. We are signing too few contracts, and only small jobs. In fact, it is possible that there will be negative corrections in coming months. The reality on the construction sites is altogether different.” according to a declaration for Business Standard by Adriana Iftime, General Manager of the Construction Company Employers Union (PSC).
