Construction - February 2007

Seasonally adjusted total construction output at constant prices was up by 2.6% in February 2007 compared to January 2007. In comparison to February 2006, output at constant prices grew by 32.5%. The planning and building control authorities granted 8 161 building permits, which was by 7.7% more year-on-year. Approximate value of permitted constructions reached CZK 25.1 billion and decreased by 3.2% year-on-year.
Seasonally adjusted total construction output at constant prices grew by 2.6% month-on-month. The trend rose by 2.6% month-on-month (see Table 3).
Year-on-year, total construction output at constant prices grew by 32.5% and by 28.5% adjusted for seasonal effects. In comparison to February 2006, the volumes of construction work increased in all types of constructions. Building construction shows a double-digit growth for the second successive month. The very favourable weather conditions (the mean temperature in February 2007 was 4°C above the long-term average; in addition, there was a minimum snow cover on comparison to February 2006) enabled builders to perform all kinds of construction work without restraint.

Contracted construction work carried out by construction enterprises with 20+ employees grew by 32.4% year-on-year at constant prices. New construction, reconstruction and modernisation recorded a 32.7% increase (contribution 28.5 percentage points), of which building construction grew by 39.6% (contribution 24.7 p.p.) and civil engineering by 15.3% (contribution 3.8 p.p.). Repair and maintenance increased by 6.2% (contribution 0.6 p.p.) and other construction work by 39.3% (contribution 0.3 p.p.). Construction work abroad was more than twice and half of that in February 2006 (contribution 3.0 p.p.).

Employment in construction enterprises with 20+ employees dropped by 0.1%*) year-on-year. Average monthly nominal wage of employees increased by 13.0% year-on-year and reached CZK 17 891 (real wage rose by 11.3%). The average hourly wage grew by 7.1% year-on-year and stood at CZK 136. The number of working days being the same, manual workers worked on average 11 hours more than in February 2006. Labour productivity per employee increased by 32.6% and labour productivity per hour worked grew by 25.6%.

The planning and building control authorities granted 8 161**) building permits in February 2007 (of which 4 329 for new constructions and 3 832 for renewals and enhancements). The number of building permits granted rose by 7.7% year-on-year.

Approximate value of constructions permitted in February 2007 decreased by 3.2% year-on-year and reached CZK 25.1 billion. New construction will produce constructions valued at CZK 17.6 billion (up by 9.5%, contribution 5.9 p.p.). Renewals and enhancements will make available constructions worth CZK 7.5 billion (down by 24.0%, contribution -9.1 p.p.). The increase in approximate value of new construction is mainly attributable to building permits for non-residential buildings (up by 42.6%, contribution 6.0 p.p.) and other constructions (up by 14.1%, contribution 2.8 p.p.). The items concerned were building permits for financially demanding projects of shopping centres, office buildings and highways. Year-on-year decreases in approximate value of renewals and enhancements were registered for other constructions (down by 49.1%, contribution -8.1 p.p.) and non-residential buildings (down by 10.4%, contribution -1.3 p.p.).

The planning and building control authorities permitted the construction of 2 969 dwellings, which was by 492 dwellings fewer (-14.2%) than in February 2006. Out of that, 2 572 dwellings will be obtained by new construction (down by 333 dwellings) and 397 dwellings by renewals and enhancements (down by 159 dwellings). Approximate value of newly permitted dwellings in multi-dwelling buildings was CZK 5.6 billion.
Further, the planning and building control authorities permitted the construction of buildings with a floor space of 608.0 thousand m2. An increase of 3.5% compared to February 2006 was mainly due to non-residential buildings. The floor space of renewals and enhancements to residential buildings decreased by 36.6%, the floor space of new residential buildings fell by 1.2%. The average floor space of a newly constructed dwelling was 117.3 m2 and approximate value CZK 17.5 thousand per m2.
According to data released by Eurostat, the y-o-y production index for construction in the EU27 grew by 7.3% (working days adjusted) in January 2007, of which by 6.2% in building construction and by 12.8% in civil engineering works. Among the EU member states for which data were available, the highest increases were observed in Poland (+60.3%), Slovenia (+46.7%), Germany (+35.5%) and Slovakia (+20.4%). The largest decrease was recorded in the United Kingdom (-9.6%).
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*) Construction work is observed in enterprises with 20+ employees. The average registered number of employees does not include agency workers and foreigners working in construction.
**) On 1 January 2007, a new Act No. 183/2006 Sb., on territorial planning and the building code (the Building Act), was brought in. It regulates, especially in Sections 103 and 104, the problem of “granting building permits”. This new Act may have an impact on absolute values in the time series covering new construction and renewals and enhancements, particularly numbers of building permits and corresponding approximate values for non-residential buildings, environmental constructions and other constructions.

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Note
Contact: Vladimír Zikmund, phone (+420) 274054252, e-mail: vladimir.zikmund@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises with 20+ employees and planning and building control authorities
End of data collection: 3 April 2007
End of data processing: 6 April 2007
Related publications: /1-ep-8
8201-07 Construction
8202-07 Building Permits Granted

The data in Table 1 for December and the year 2006 are final; the data for January and February 2007 are preliminary and will be updated when data for April 2007 are released.
The data in Table 2 are final.