Construction Output YoY

Construction Output YoY compares a month with the same month 12 months earlier using Eurostat's monthly volume index for construction. The index tracks price-adjusted quantity, or volume trend in value added, and belongs to Short-term business statistics, the EU monthly monitoring system. It covers NACE Section F, the EU classification, for activity at home and abroad, and as a Principal European Economic Indicator it guides EU policy. It does not track permits or starts, nominal values, prices, jobs, hidden activity or foreign-contractor work, and EU totals start in January 1995.

Eurostat publishes Production in construction monthly, about 6 to 7 weeks after the reference month, at 11 a.m. Central European Time on pre-announced dates. Large construction countries transmit within 1 month and 15 days, small countries report quarterly within 2 months, and EU totals need 60% weight coverage. Each release shows monthly change on seasonally adjusted data, which remove seasonal patterns, and annual change on calendar-adjusted data, which correct for working days. It breaks down results by sector and country, estimates missing values, and revises past values when late data arrive.

The total index combines 3 activity groups defined by reporting-unit activity since 2021, not project type, and their paths can diverge.

• Construction of buildings: covers residential and non-residential building work (NACE Division F41).
• Civil engineering: covers roads, railways, bridges, runways, dams and similar works, often publicly funded (NACE Division F42).
• Specialised construction activities: covers finishing and installation work done by specialist contractors (NACE Division F43).

For the February 2024 reference month, published April 18, 2024, seasonally adjusted output rose 1.8% on the month. Calendar-adjusted output fell 0.6% in the EU and 0.4% in the euro area on the year. Buildings fell 2.8% in the EU and 2.5% in the euro area on the year, while civil engineering rose 4.2% and 4.9% respectively. Specialised activities fell 0.5% in the EU and 0.1% in the euro area, with January 2024 euro-area annual change revised from 0.8% to -0.3%.

1. Target: The index tracks volume trend in value added, which is output minus materials and subcontractor costs, not unadjusted sales.
2. Deflation: Money measures such as turnover, or sales, are divided by a matching price index, a step called deflation, to remove price change. For example, turnover of 120.0 million euros divided by a price index of 112.0 gives 107.1 million euros in 2021 prices.
3. Productivity adjustment: Site hours, or time worked on site, are multiplied by a productivity factor, or value added per hour, to estimate output. For example, 2.00 million hours times 53.00 euros per hour gives 106.0 million euros, cross-checking the deflated figure.
4. European aggregation: Eurostat averages national indices using turnover-based country weights, or shares of EU sales, and publishes EU totals only with 60% weight coverage. For example, a 25% weight at 105.3 with 75% at 105.0 gives 105.1.
5. Rates of change: Monthly change uses calendar-and-seasonally-adjusted indices, while annual change uses calendar-adjusted indices, with 2021 as reference, set to 100. For example, monthly change of 105.3 over 103.4 gives 1.8%, and annual change of 96.8 over 97.4 gives -0.6%.