Construction slowed down sharply in December, the annual result still ended in positive values

Overall, the performance of construction for the entire year 2023 increased slightly year-on-year. The double-digit growth rate of civil engineering works was overlapped by a slight slowdown in the dominant construction of buildings. The weak December result did not help the sector either, when construction production dropped by double digits.

In December 2023, construction production¹⁾ reached a value of EUR 657.6 million, which represented a year-on-year drop of 12.1%²⁾. During the year, construction slowed down 3 times year-on-year, the decline in December was higher than in March and April.

Inland production decreased year-on-year by 12.3%, which was influenced by the most significant slowdown of activities in important new construction³⁾ by up to a fifth. The positive values of the smaller components of production have moderated, but not equalized. Abroad production also declined by almost 11%.

Download high resolution chart format PDF (81 kB) or PNG (160 kB).

Also in terms of production specification (according to the type of construction), both components recorded a year-on-year decrease - both construction of buildings and civil engineering work.

In a month-on-month comparison with November 2023, after taking seasonal effects into account, construction production was lower by 9.9%.

Development of construction production in 2023

The construction sector for the entire year 2023 produced works in the amount of EUR 7.1 billion. After inflation adjustment and converting to constant prices, the performance sector increased year-on-year by only 1.1%. In the assessment of long-term development, last year was one of the seven years when construction recorded a year-on-year increase. However, growth dynamics was the lowest since 2009 (compared to the sector's revised/definitive annual data to 2022).

In 2023, positive result of construction was mainly due to a rise of the strongest component of new construction, reconstructions and modernizations by 4.4%. On the contrary, in the annual balance, repairs and maintenance recorded a decrease of 4%.

Download high resolution chart format PDF (82 kB) or PNG (224 kB).

In terms of production specification, the positive result of the sector is the result of a double-digit growth of almost 15% of civil engineering works. A rise of the smaller component was thus able to overlap a decline of the dominant building construction by less than 4%.

Work carried out abroad in the annual summary decreased by 4.5% year-on-year, but represented only less than 10% of the total production of Slovak construction companies.