The main construction industry received significantly more orders in the first half of the year: order intake in the sector rose by 9.4 percent compared to the same period last year, or 7.3 percent after adjustment for price changes, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Monday.
In building construction, which includes residential construction, 5.6 percent more orders were recorded, and in civil engineering, 8.7 percent more. According to the report, the industry's turnover rose by 2.2 percent in price-adjusted terms in the first half of the year.
The trend is “clearly upward,” said Sebastian Dullien, scientific director of the Institute for Macroeconomics and Economic Research (IMK) at the Hans Böckler Foundation. Residential construction is benefiting from rising real incomes among the population and slightly lower interest rates for construction loans.
The years of restraint in residential construction are “slowly coming to an end.” However, this recovery is expected to focus on single-family homes. “Non-residential construction and civil engineering are likely to benefit from the foreseeable increase in public investment in the coming quarters,” Dullien expects.
Overall, a “noticeable turnaround” in the construction industry is to be expected by the turn of the year at the latest. In June alone, new orders for building construction rose by 12.2 percent compared to the previous month, as the statistics office further reported. In civil engineering, on the other hand, orders fell sharply by 13.1 percent. Overall, order intake for the main industry was down 2.6 percent in June compared to the previous month
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