Hungary construction sector up 3.6% yr/yr in November

Output of Hungary’s construction sector was up 3.6% in November from the same month a year, lifted by road and railways renovation projects from a very low base, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Monday.

The twelve-month rise was the first one registered since June 2009 and followed a 8.5% decline in October.

Output of the building segment fell 3.2% year-on-year and output of the civil engineering segment rose 10.3% in the twelve months to November 2011.

Output of organisations in the road and railway building segment rose about 50% from an extremely low base, KSH noted.

In a month-on-month comparison, construction sector output rose 7.3% according to seasonally- and workday-adjusted figures after levelling out in October. Output of the building segment rose an adjusted 16.6% from October and civil engineering output rose 2.3% from the previous month.

Construction sector output fell 8.8% in January-November from the same period a year earlier after a 10.4% decline in the full year of 2010.

January-November output in the construction of buildings fell 11.7% and output of the civil engineering segment was down 5.7% in the period.

New orders were up 3.2% in November from twelve months earlier in the first twelve-month rise registered since June 2010. New orders were buildings continued to decline and were down 7.0% from November 2010 but new civil engineering orders were up 11.3% after four months of yr/yr declines.

Total contracts held by the sector were still down by almost 40% yr/yr in volume terms as the stock of orders for buildings was 41.3% lower and the stock of civil engineering orders dropped 38.5%.

Hungary’s construction sector output fell every year since 2006.