In March, the construction industry also lagged behind last year, the construction of buildings and civil engineering works slowed down

Construction production in March 2024 have fallen even further behind, decreasing by 9.4%. This was mainly due to the domestic new construction, which was lower by a tenth. In terms of the production focus, the construction of buildings slowed down and work on engineering constructions also dropped by double digits. Construction work abroad did not prospered either.

Construction production¹⁾ in March reached EUR 484.3 million and compared to last March, it decreased by 9.4%²⁾. Construction recorded its decline for the fourth consecutive month. After seasonal adjustment, construction production dropped by 7.5% month-on-month.

The Statistical Office of the SR would like to inform that starting from the data for January 2024, the data for the construction were recalculated in the entire time series due to methodological adjustments - Change of the base period and the classification according to activity units (PDF - 154 kB). The change also affected indicators of other sectoral statistics.

The lagging of domestic production was influenced by year-on-year decreases in construction work in the dominant field of the industry – in new construction³⁾ by 10.2% and also in repairs and maintenance by 4.9%. Domestic construction production represented less than 90% of the total output of the construction industry.

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In terms of the production focus, the construction of buildings decreased by 8.1%. Civil engineering works, which also includes highway construction, dropped by 15.5%, which was the most since January 2022.

The overall result of construction production was not improved even by the works abroad, they resulted in a double-digit minus, by 16.5%. Their share in the total production only slightly exceeded 10%.

In total, for the first three months of 2024, construction production amounted to EUR 1.3 billion and decreased by 6.6% year-on-year. All its components reached negative values. The dominant domestic new construction decreased by 7.8%, repairs and maintenance by 0.4% and other works by up to 11.6%.

In terms of the production focus, construction of buildings showed a decrease by 5.5% and civil engineering works decreased by 10%.

In total for the first three months, the volume of construction work abroad was lower by 11.7% year-on-year.