Construction activity in Romania driven by civil engineering in Q1

The construction activity measured by the construction works index in Romania increased by 12.7% y/y in Q1, according to the statistics office INS.

The growth was mainly driven by the civil engineering segment (+24.9% y/y), while the residential segment posted a robust 6.1% y/y advance (the strongest in four quarters), and the non-residential buildings segment lost momentum to 3.1% y/y after four intense growth quarters.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the activity remained at the same high levels reached in the last quarter of last year (a mere 0.5% below).

The seasonal and workday-adjusted data provides again an interesting feature caused by methodology: while all the segments of the market (residential, non-residential, civil engineering) registered positive q/q growth rates, the entire construction activity edged down by 0.5%.

Specifically, the residential and civil engineering segments boast significant q/q growth rates of 9.4% and 2.3%, respectively, while the non-residential segment edged up by only 0.6% q/q.

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