The construction industry in Bulgaria decreased by -21.9% in November 2009 compared to November 2008, according to the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute (NSI).

The NSI clarified that construction was down -10.7% from October 2009 and of this figure, a decrease of -12.5% has been attributed to real estate construction. During the period of January-November 2009, construction fell -13.8% compared to the same period in 2008.

In December 2009 it was revealed that some real estate construction companies were conducting negotiations to buy out established road construction firms, with the reason being that there is €1bn of planned investments for the sector under regional development programmes earmarked for modernising Bulgaria’s infrastructure.

According to Dnevnik daily, the bulk of the decrease in the industry is attributed to a decline in real estate construction with a -28.3% drop, compared to engineering and infrastructure construction which only fell -8.5%.