Construction - January 2007

Seasonally adjusted total construction output at constant prices was up by 3.1% in January 2007 compared to December 2006. In comparison to January 2006, output at constant prices grew by 29.2%. The planning and building control authorities granted 8 410 building permits, which was down by 2.8% year-on-year. Approximate value of permitted constructions reached CZK 19.8 billion and increased by 7.7% year-on-year.
Seasonally adjusted total construction output at constant prices increased by 3.1% month-on-month. The trend rose by 2.1% month-on-month (see Table 3).

Year-on-year, total construction output at constant prices grew by 29.2%; by 23.9% adjusted for seasonal effects. In comparison to January 2006, the volumes of construction work increased in all types of construction, particularly in building construction. Most favourable weather conditions (the mean temperature was 5.9 °C above the long-term average in January 2007 and there was a minimum snow cover on comparison to January 2006) enabled builders to perform all kinds of construction work actually without restraint.

Contracted construction work carried out by construction enterprises with 20+ employees grew by 28.8% year-on-year at constant prices. New construction, reconstruction and modernisation recorded a 28.4% increase (contribution 25.2 percentage points), of which building construction grew by 41.4% (contribution 24.3 p.p.) and civil engineering by 2.9% (contribution 0.9 p.p.). Repair and maintenance increased by 17.3% (contribution 1.6 p.p.), other construction work rose by 40.1% (contribution 0.3 p.p.). Construction work abroad more than doubled (contribution 1.7 p.p.).

Employment in construction enterprises with 20+ employees dropped by 0.5% against January 2006. Average monthly nominal wage of employees increased by 15.5% year-on-year and reached CZK 19 462 (real wage rose by 14.0%). Average hourly wage increased by 6.2% year-on-year and stood at CZK 137. Number of working days being the same, manual workers worked 15 hours more than in January 2006. Labour productivity per employee increased by 29.4% and labour productivity per hour worked grew by 19.1%.

The planning and building control authorities granted 8 410*) building permits in January 2007 (of which 4 516 for new constructions and 3 894 for renewals and enhancements). The number of building permits granted dropped by 2.8% year-on-year.

The approximate value of constructions permitted in January 2007 increased by 7.7% year-on-year and reached CZK 19.8 billion. New construction will produce constructions valued at CZK 13.1 billion (up by 15.5%, contribution 9.5 p.p.). Renewals and enhancements will make available constructions worth CZK 6.7 billion (down by 4.8%, contribution -1.8 p.p.). The increase in approximate value of new construction is mainly attributable to building permits for other constructions (up by 45.7%, contribution 6.3 p.p.) and environmental constructions (up by 78.7, contribution 4.3 p.p.). Items concerned were building permits for utility lines, highways and wastewater treatment plants including sewerage systems. The year-on-year decrease in approximate value of completed constructions was affected by building permits for non-residential buildings (down by 21.2%, contribution -3.4 p.p.) and other constructions (down by 11.9%, contribution -1.4 p.p.).

The planning and building control authorities permitted the construction of 2 587 dwellings, which was by 300 dwellings fewer (down by 10.4%) than in January 2006. Out of that, 2 023 dwellings will be obtained by new construction (down by 143 dwellings) and 564 dwellings by renewals and enhancements (down by 157 dwellings). Approximate value of newly permitted dwellings in multi-dwelling buildings was CZK 7.6 billion.
Further, the planning and building control authorities permitted the construction of buildings with a floor space of 532.1 thousand m2. A decrease of 11.6% compared to January 2006 was mainly due to non-residential buildings. The floor space of new residential buildings grew by 26.6%. Construction of dwellings with the average floor space of 139.2 m2 per dwelling and approximate value CZK 19.2 thousand per m2 was permitted for new residential buildings.
According to Eurostat, the y-o-y production index for construction grew by 6.7% (working days adjusted) in the EU25 in December 2006, of which by 7.1% in building construction and by 4.5% in civil engineering works. Among the EU member states for which data were available, the highest increases were observed in Slovenia (+30.3%), Romania (+24.2%) and Slovakia (+20.1%). The largest decrease was recorded in Portugal (-10.7%).
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*) New Act No. 183/2006 Sb., on territorial planning and the building code (the Building Act), is in force from 1 January 2007. This Act, especially in Sections 103 and 104, regulates newly the problem of “granting building permits”. The new Act may have an impact on absolute values in the time series covering building permits and renewals and enhancements, particularly numbers of building permits and their approximate value for non-residential buildings, environmental 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: 6 March 2007
End of data processing: 9 March 2007
Related publications: /1-ep-8
8201-07 Construction
8202-07 Building Permits Granted

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