Construction grows faster in Spain than rest of EU

THE Spanish construction industry grew faster in November last year than in any other European Union country.

Figures just released by the EU’s own statistics organisation, Eurostat, showed construction work in Spain increased 15.9 per cent in November 2014 compared to the same month in 2013.

The growth outstrips the average across the euro area, which was 2.2 per cent, and the European Union as a whole, which was 2.5 per cent.

Spain’s improvement was most closely followed by Sweden, where the building and civil engineering sector grew by 12.5 per cent compared to November 2013.

Spain also bucked the trend when construction work in November was compared to the previous month, with a growth of 2.2 per cent on October 2014’s figures, when the EU as a whole averaged a 0.1 per cent fall in construction work.

Of last year’s statistics for construction in Spain, April 2014 recorded the biggest monthly growth compared to the same month in 2013, at 55.4 per cent, with the industry performing well against the previous year throughout January to November.

However, any comparison to the rest of the EU requires the caveat that the Spanish building sector has been growing from a much lower base than many other European countries, following the industry’s almost complete collapse at the worst point of the financial crisis.