Press Release 01/03/2021

CONSTRUCTION INDEX. IV/2020

Activity in the Construction sector in the Basque Country fell by 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020

The Building sub-sector decreased by 5.1% and the Civil Works sub-sector was down 9.2%

Construction activity in the Basque Country registered a year-on-year nominal downturn of 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020, in homogeneous terms and once corrected for calendar effects, according to EUSTAT data.

The drop in the Construction sector in this quarter was due to the negative performance of both the Building subsector, which registered a year-on-year downturn of 5.1%, and the Civil Works subsector, which fell by 9.2%.

If the activity of the sector in the fourth quarter of 2020 is compared to the previous , once seasonal effects have been corrected the Construction sector increased by 1.2%. The Building subsector showed a positive quarter-on-quarter evolution of 3.3% whereas Civil Works was down 7.0%.

Finally, and in deseasonalised terms, the number of people employed in the construction sector in the fourth quarter of 2020 was down 0.7%, as regards the third quarter of 2020.

Annual balance 2020

In 2020 overall, the Construction Index posted a fall of 7.3% with regards to the previous year. Both the Building and Civil Works subsectors performed negatively, with a fall compared to 2019 of 7.5% in the case of the former and 6.0% for the latter.

NOTE:

Included as persons employed considered in this and other short-term indices, are those covered by an ERTE (Temporary Labour Force Adjustment Plan), following the definition of persons employed indicated by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) in its manual Methodology of Short Term Business Statistics.

The models used in the correction of calendar effects and deseasonalisation of the series include the effect of COVID-19 on the variables studied, following the recommendations of the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) in its methodological note Guidance on Time Series Treatment in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

Eustat would like to thank all the establishments that have collaborated in making this effort despite the circumstances. As a result, the index for the fourth quarter was calculated with 90.4% coverage of the sample.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62