The latest EU construction data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, shows that construction activity increased by 0.7% between May 2013 and June 2013 for the Euro area overall. However, within the EU member states there are large variations.

Annually, construction is increasing at twice the pace within EU countries that are not using the Euro (+3%), compared to Eurozone countries increasing construction by just 1.5%.

Among the Eurozone countries for which data are available for June 2013, production in construction fell in ten and rose in three, compared to the previous year. The largest decreases were registered in Poland (-16.3%), Portugal (-12.0%), Slovakia (-10.7%) and the Czech Republic (-9.8%), and the largest increases in Hungary (+12.5%), Spain (+4.1%) and Sweden (+3.1%).

Compared to May 2013, increases were registered in Slovenia (+10.5%), Poland (+5.3%), Germany (+1.6%) and the Czech Republic (+1.3%), and the largest decreases in Romania (-2.4%), Portugal (-2.2%) and Sweden (-0.9%).