THE SECTOR OF CONSTRUCTION IN PORTUGAL REGISTERED HIGHEST INCREASE IN FIVE MONTHS

The production in the sector of construction rose 3.7% in April, the highest growth since November 2018, being the highest increase in five months, in the hitchhiking of the civil engineering segment.

According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), production in the sector of construction grew 3.7% in April when compared to the same month last year, reflecting the highest increase since November (3.9%) and an acceleration of the pace of growth compared to the previous month (3.1%).

"The Index of Production in Construction accelerated by 0.6 percentage points (p.p.), to an annual rate of change of 3.7% in April", indicates INE.

The two segments considered, building construction and civil engineering accelerated 04. and 1.1 percentage points, respectively, to annual variations of 2.3% and 5.8% in April. 

Despite this acceleration in production growth, employment and wages in the sector rose at a slower pace than in March. In the case of employment, growth went from 3.2% in March to 2.9% in April, while in wages the rise slowed down from 6.2% to 6%.

In the chain comparison, that is in comparison with the previous month, April was the fourth consecutive month of increases in the construction production. The advance was 0.2% against March, after the growth of 1% in that month compared to February.