Production in construction

In March 2020 construction output fell by 36.2% in the month on month series, showing the largest fall on record since the series began, back in 1995.

In the first quarter of 2020, production in construction was down 6.8% when compared with the previous quarter.

The year on year unadjusted index for construction output sharply dropped by 33.1%, while the calendar adjusted index fell dramatically by 35.4% (22 calendar working days versus 21 days in March 2019).

During the COVID-19 pandemic emergency the survey on Building Workers Welfare Funds was largely unaffected, gaining the usual response rate. Notwithstanding, a minor issue may concern the quality of the information gathered. With regard to the industrial turnover survey a moderate fall in the response rate occured. New strategies were implemented to deal with the missing responses in order to calculate and release accurate indices for March 2020 (for further details see Methodological note, page 8).