Romania’s residential building works plunge in Jan-Oct 2018

The volume of construction works in October 2018 declined by 3.6% compared to the same month of last year (y/y terms), the statistics office INS informed. For the first ten months (January-October) the activity of the construction companies in volume terms contracted by 4.1% y/y. The steepest decline was in the segment of residential buildings where the volume of works plunged by 28.5% in October and by 28% y/y in January-October. The decline partly reversed the unusually steep 77% expansion boasted by the residential buildings segment in January-October 2017. The non-residential buildings segment (commercial spaces, office buildings, logistics facilities) performed above average in 2018: the volume of works for the segment increased by 5.3% y/y in October and by a marginal 0.1% y/y for January-October. The volume of civil engineering works (infrastructure projects in general) increased by 7.9% y/y in January-October (+5.3% y/y in October alone) on low base: it had contracted by 25.4% in the same period of last year, reaching the lowest post-crisis levels amid scarce public financing. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Pexels.com)