Construction: slight easing of price pressure

The business climate in construction brightened again somewhat in August. The present business conditions were evaluated a little more favourably by the surveyed participants. Their appraisal of the six-month business outlook is also somewhat less critical than in July. Nevertheless, the construction firms are again a little more dissatisfied with their order stocks. Equipment utilisation remained unchanged over July and is currently slightly under level of August 2008. The business climate improved both in civil engineering and in structural engineering. Possibly the firms now feel the positive effects of the economic stimulus packages.