Over the second quarter of 2006 construction activity in the A.C. of the Basque Country registered 10.7% nominal growth with regard to the same quarter in 2005, in homogeneous terms of the working calendar, according to EUSTAT data. Over the first two quarters of the year the accumulated growth came to a nominal 9.7%.

Once corrected for seasonal effects, the construction sector grew by 2.3% in the second quarter of 2006 on the first quarter of the year, thus showing a slight acceleration on the previous inter-quarterly rate (1.2%).

Inter annual quarterly growth of the corrected Construction Index of the A.C. of the Basque Country

Source:EUSTAT

The evolution of the construction sector in the second quarter of 2006 was sustained more in the Building subsector than in Civil Works, the former reaching an inter-annual growth rate of 11.8%, compared to the 8.3% increase in the latter.

In inter-quarterly terms, if the activity of the sector in the second quarter of 2006 is compared to the first, the Building subsector shows a 3.0% positive evolution and the Civil Works subsector presents a 0.6% inter-quarterly evolution, both subsectors showing a slightly accelerated profile, although with different rates.

Construction sector employment, in the second quarter of 2006, increased by 2.6% gross with regard to the same period the previous year and presented an upward trend of 0.9% with regard to the first quarter of 2006.

Table: 2nd quarter 2006. Variation rates (%) of the Construction Index of the A.C. of the Basque Country

(1) Inter-annual variation rate of the accumulated period from January to the last quarter of year t on the same period in year t-1

Source: EUSTAT