Light at the end of the tunnel

摘要

First the good news. It looks like the European construction sector will grow this year, after six years of falling output. It will not be a huge bounce-back by any means. The European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) puts the increase at just +0.1%, which would bring construction output in the EU to just over € 1,160 billion (US$ 1,550 billion). Other organisations are more bullish. Euroconstruct, the group of European forecasting bodies predicts +1.3% growth for this year. Similarly, as Scott Hazelton of IHS Global insight writes in this month's Economic Outlook, that company's forecast for Western European construction growth' this year is +1.5%. One of the problems with having so many sources to choose from is that it can be difficult to know where the truth lies. However, the main point is that the major forecasters see Europe's construction industry coming out of recession this year.