Construction activity slumps to 23% as freefall continues

FIGURES show construction activity continues to freefall, with a slump of 23% recorded for the past 12 months.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) data show the volume of activity in the construction sector fell by 11.4% in the first quarter of this year, compared with the previous three months, the biggest quarterly fall in a year.

The biggest decline in activity was in the civil engineering sector, which fell by 31.5%, followed by the residential building sector, which fell by 7.4% and non-residential building, which was down 7.2%. The change in the value of production for all building and construction was down 12.9%.