CONSTRUCTION INDEX OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY (ICC) 4th QUARTER 2010. The construction sector in the Basque Country fell by 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010

Press release dated 01/03/2011

CONSTRUCTION INDEX OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY (ICC) 4th QUARTER 2010

The construction sector in the Basque Country fell by 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010

Building was down by 15.1%, while Civil Works dropped by 19.7%

Construction in the Basque Country registered a year-on-year nominal downturn of 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010, in homogeneous terms of the working calendar, according to EUSTAT data. The decrease for 2010 as a whole was down by 16.7% with respect to the previous year.

Once corrected for seasonal effects, the Construction sector grew by 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to the third quarter of the same year.

Year-on-year quarterly growth of the corrected Construction Index of the Basque Country Total, Building and Civil Works. (%)

The drop in the Construction sector, in the fourth quarter of 2010, was mainly due to the negative performance of the Civil Works sub-sector, which registered a year-on-year downturn of 19.7%, and to the 15.1% fall posted by Building. Building fell by 13.6% and Civil Works registered a 22.2% downturn for the year as a whole.

In quarter-on-quarter terms, if the activity of the sector in the fourth quarter of 2010 is compared to the previous quarter, the Building sub-sector performed negatively (down by 2.2%) and Civil Works posted an upturn of 9.9%.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, employment in the Construction sector registered a downturn of 2.0% compared to the third quarter of the same year and was down by 9.5% with respect to the same quarter of the previous year.

Construction Index, Basque Country. 4th quarter 2010. Variation Rates (%). Provisional data.