CE Barometer for August 2022

The CE Barometer survey for August was undertaken during the first three weeks of September.

Construction professionals from across Europe took part in this month’s CE Barometer survey.

We see a healthy improvement in the overall climate figure for this month’s barometer, which stands at 14.0%, compared with last month’s 3.6%.

Perhaps this uplift shows that, while business levels are not currently as strong as we would like, there is optimism about the future, as well as a perception that the pandemic is less of a threat moving forward – at least to business.

Breaking this down, we look first at business levels in August, compared with July and find that the majority of respondents (63.2%) report that they are unchanged.

The good news is that 31.6% reported an uplift in business levels, while only 5.3% found the situation worse than in the previous month.

That gives us an overall positive balance of 26.3%, which is the strongest result in almost a year.

Comparing today’s business levels with a year ago, things are less upbeat. The positive and negative responses balance, with just over a quarter (26.3%) seeing business levels unchanged.

Interestingly, looking ahead 12 months, an optimistic outlook remains, with 36.8% of respondents anticipating improved levels of business.

This compares with 21.1% expecting a worsening of the situation, just a small increase on the 18% who did not feel optimistic in last month’s survey.

The balance figure stands at 15.8%, a little down on last month’s 17.9%, but still a reasonably healthy outlook.