Construction Output MoM

Production in Construction is Eurostat's monthly business-cycle indicator for price-adjusted construction output across the EU and euro area. Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, compiles EU totals from national indices in short-term business statistics. It is a Principal European Economic Indicator for monitoring economic and monetary policy.

It covers NACE Section F in 27 EU countries and the euro area, split into 41 buildings, 42 civil engineering and 43 specialised activities. Countries collect data from surveys and administrative registers with no single EU sample, and the European Commission compiles aggregates through Eurostat. It is not permits, prices or sentiment, but price-adjusted volume change from reported data, not opinions. Arabic listings render the name literally, with no established Arabic media name.

Eurostat releases and revises aggregates once a month under an annual calendar, at 11 am CET/CEST on the Eurostat website. Medium and large countries transmit data within 1 month and 15 days after the reference month, while small countries have 2 months or report quarterly.

An aggregate is published only with at least 60% of weight covered for each series, and missing values are estimated, never left blank. Each release shows month-on-month and year-on-year change with sector splits, country tables and a long-run chart, and the database updates with publication. Data are revised every month on new national data, errors are corrected at once with a report, and major changes are announced in advance.

Total output sums 3 divisions, which often diverge.

• Construction of buildings: covers residential and non-residential buildings in division 41, the largest sub-aggregate.
• Civil engineering: covers railways, roads, bridges, airport runways, dams and similar works in division 42.
• Specialised construction activities: covers division 43, reported in detailed tables with the other two.

Eurostat published release 72/2021 on June 17, 2021 for April 2021 on a 2015 equals 100 base then. EU output fell 1.6% on the month on calendar and seasonally adjusted data and rose 32.7% on the year on calendar-adjusted data. The euro area fell 2.2% on the month and rose 42.3% on the year.

The yearly surge was a base effect: the index stood at 84.3 in April 2020 against 110.2 in April 2021. France rose 160.4% on the year from a near standstill.

Civil engineering fell 5.4% on the month against 0.7% for buildings. Buildings rose 33.9% on the year against 22.4% for civil engineering. March EU monthly growth was revised from 2.2% to 3.5% in the same release. The lesson near crash anniversaries: ignore the eye-catching yearly rate and read the adjusted monthly rate with the building and civil split.

1. National volume: each country measures change in value-added volume with a Laspeyres-type index, approximating unobserved value added by deflated output or labour and material inputs.
2. Index base: national series use base year 2021 equals 100, and Eurostat harmonises base years in compilation.

1. EU aggregation: the EU index averages national indices by country share, published only with at least 60% of weight covered.
2. Turnover: turnover is the weighting variable for published EU growth rates, based on 2021 data.

1. Rates of change: month-on-month uses calendar and seasonally adjusted data and year-on-year uses calendar-adjusted data, with adjustment mainly national and EU aggregation indirect.

For example, weights 0.7 and 0.3 with indices 112.0 and 110.0 give 111.4, then the same weights with 110.0 and 109.0 give 109.7, down 1.5%. April 2021 data from 112.0 to 110.2 matched the published 1.6% fall.