"Construction industry output was down 6.2% year-on-year in December, less drastic than the 14.2% figure in November, the Central Statistics Office reported.Construction output grew a seasonally adjusted 8.4% from November, which analysts attribute to large infrastructure projects.
New orders in the sector were down 16% year-on-year in December. The sector's output was Ft 1,981 billion last year, down from Ft 2,011 billion in 2008.
Annual output fell 4.3% last year, the fourth consecutive year of decline.
Analyst Daniel Bebesy of Budapest Alapkezelo noted that the 4.3% drop is significantly lower than the declines in manufacturing and in industrial production, and is lower than the 6.3% fall in GDP last year.
The relatively small decline was largely due to EU-financed infrastructure projects, but these mainly benefit larger companies, said vice president Laszlo Koji of construction association Evosz, while noting that 96% of the 82,000 companies in the sector have fewer than 10 employees.
Koji expects the protracted declines in the industry to continue this year and that smaller companies will continue to live off their reserves. New home constructions fell to half of 2006 levels last year, he said."
Source: Hungary Around the Clock.
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25.02.2010