According to the report from HCOB, activity in the construction sector continued to contract in August, but the pace of the contract remained unchanged compared to the previous months.
The eurozone construction PMI was 41.4 points, the same as in July. The index remains below 50 points, which indicates a reduction in activity in the sector, for the 28th month in a row. The overall reduction in activity reflected declines across the three largest eurozone economies. Activity in Germany decreased at the sharpest rate in 3 months, while there were slightly softer contractions in France and Italy.
The HCOB said that all three broad areas of the construction sector recorded a lower output, with the housing sector being the worst performing sub-sector for the 24th consecutive month and recorded the most marked reduction since April 2020. Commercial activity declined at the same pace as in July, while the slowest decline was in civil engineering, though the decline here was still steep nonetheless. New orders fell again in August (for the 29th month in a row), but the rate of decline slowed compared to July. Employment in the construction sector also fell last month, while the rate of decline was almost unchanged compared to July. As for the inflationary situation, input prices recorded the strongest growth in 6 months, but remained relatively softer than the long-run series average. The data also showed that construction companies in the euro area remained pessimistic regarding the year-ahead outlook for activity.