In December, construction managed to increase its year-on-year performance, but the annual production ended with a 5% drop

In total for the year 2024, construction did not do well, all components of domestic production ended in decline. It was mainly slowed down by the double-digit year-on-year decrease in works on engineering constructions. By type of works, the slowdown was evident in new construction and repairs. The overall result of the sector was not improved even by slightly in-creasing performances in the last two months of the year.

Construction production¹⁾ increased in December 2024 reached a volume of EUR 752.7 million and increased by 4.3% year-on-year²⁾. Domestic construction achieved a positive result for only three months in 2024, the December´s value was the second highest. The volume of construction production, after seasonal adjustment, was lower month-on-month by 1.2%.

The dominant component domestic new construction³⁾ increased by more than 12%, which was its most favourable result during the past year. However, the balance of the industry continued to be hampered by domestic repairs and maintenance, their volume was almost lower by 15% year-on-year. Domestic construction production exceeded 90% of the total performance of the industry.

Broken down by construction type, the construction of buildings, which is more significant in terms of share, rose year-on-year for the second consecutive month, currently by 7.7% in December. Works on engineering constructions, also including highway construction, remained in a slight depression and its volume was lower by 2.4% in December 2023.

The total December´s result of the sector was also influenced by the increase of construction works abroad by 2.9%, their share in the total production of the sector dropped below 10%.

Development of construction production in 2024

According to the cumulative results of monthly surveys, the construction sector produced works in the amount of almost EUR 7.5 billion for the entire year 2024. Although construction produced higher values in current prices, it slightly decreased its performance year-on-year after adjusting for inflation. After adjusting for the impact of inflation and converting to constant prices, its production decreased by 5% year-on-year. The decline in construction production was recorded for the second year in a row, but in 2023 it was only slight by 0.2% (only data that was updated to the base period 2021 can be compared)⁴⁾.

 The slump in construction in 2024 was marked by a decline in all components of domestic production, especially the strongest component in terms of share, domestic new construction with renewals and enhancements by more than 6%, and also works on repairs and maintenance of buildings by almost 5%.

The negative result of the industry in terms of breakdown by type of construction results from a decline in the dominant construction of buildings by more than 2% and also a drop of almost 12% in works on engineering constructions.

A slight year-on-year improvement was achieved by works abroad, in the whole year they increased by 0.9%. However, they represented less than 11% of the total production of SR construction enterprises.