Romania’s seasonally-adjusted residential construction index exceeded the pre-crisis maximum hit in August 2008 by 1.5%, according to statistics office data released on October 13.
As the other segments of the market were lagging behind, the overall construction index was still 32% lower than nine years ago, hovering with no particular direction since 2010.
The construction works index edged up a mere 0.4% y/y in July-August and contracted by 0.6% y/y in August alone, but this was still a good performance compared to the 12% y/y contraction in Q2.
Civil engineering works kept lagging in July-August (-21% y/y) after a similar massive 20%-30% y/y contraction seen in Q1-Q2. The segment of non-residential buildings (retail spaces, office buildings) saw a milder yet significant average decline (-10% y/y) in the first two months of Q3 after the negative performance in the first two quarters of the year.
Overall, the market performance in January-August this year remained in the negative area (-4.9% y/y) despite the outstanding activity in the residential segment (+86% y/y). This was mainly due to the subdued activity in the civil engineering segment (-26% y/y) on subdued public financing, but also to the 10% contraction in the non-residential buildings segment.
Construction Works y/y | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Q1 17 | Q2 17 | Jul-17 | Aug-17 |
Total | -0.6% | -6.8% | 10.5% | -4.8% | 1.0% | -12.2% | 1.3% | -0.6% |
Residential bldgs. | 5.4% | 32.6% | -5.8% | 12.1% | 80.1% | 74.5% | 95.5% | 123.4% |
Non-residential bldgs. | -7.5% | 16.6% | 1.1% | 1.1% | -7.3% | -15.6% | -2.5% | -8.1% |
Civil engineering | 1.4% | -21.8% | 20.0% | -11.2% | -20.7% | -31.0% | -18.4% | -23.8% |
Source: INS |