Construction industry in Europe: Increasing production only in the medium term

After a slight decline last year to just €978billion, the aggregated construction volume of the 19 Euroconstruct countries will hardly escape stagnation in 2003 and increase only slightly next year. For 2005 the Euroconstruct institutes in 15 western and four Eastern and Central European countries expect an improved performance at approximately 2% growth. Residential construction that has had negative growth since 2001 will continue its decline into 2004, but at a slower pace, and thereafter will recover only very hesitantly. The slight recession in non-residential construction will be limited to the years 2002 and 2003; only in 2005 will growth gain momentum. In civil engineering the continuous upward trend flattened last year. Not until 2004 will growth speed up again. These are some of the major results of the 55th Euroconstruct Conference in Budapest in June 2003. As a main topic the conference examined the effects of EU eastern enlargement on construction and real estate markets in Western Europe and in the accession countries of Eastern and Central European.