Activity set to climb

The results of january's CE Barometer survey show the European construction industry is extremely positive about its prospects for the future. However, sentiment about the current situation softened compared to December. Despite this our 'clock' still shows the outlook is positive both now and going forward, indicating a boom in activity.

Asked about current business levels, a balance of +16,5% of respondents said activity was higher in January compared to the previous month. This was down -6,2 points from the figure of +22,7% recorded in December. The balance figure was arrived at by subtracting the number of respondents who said activity was worse from the number who said it was better. This number was then expressed as a percentage of the total number of responses.

But while optimism about the current situation weakened, sentiment about the industry's future outlook strengthened considerably. A balance of +61,3% of respondents said they expected activity to be higher in a years' time, compared to current levels. This was up from the already bullish result of +49,5% in December.

Take Part

CE would like to thank all those that took part in the January survey. It was completed by more than 350 construction professionals in 38 countries around the region.

The CE Barometer survey is open from the 1st to the 15th of each month on our website. Full information can be found at www.khl.com/CE_barometer/index.asp. The survey, which takes just one minute to complete – is open to all construction professionals working in Europe. Those that take part in the survey will be given access to each month's results on the Internet prior to their publication in CE.