The fall in the 18 countries of the Eurozone was slightly less, at 1.5%, according to first estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
In April 2014, production in construction rose by 0.4% in the EA18 area and by 0.3% in the EU28.
The decrease of 1.5% in production in construction in the Eurozone area is due to civil engineering falling by 3% and building construction by 1.1%.
In the EU28, the decrease of 1.6% is due to civil engineering falling by 2.4% and building construction by 1.2%.
The largest decreases in construction output were observed in Germany (-4.9%), Poland (-3.9%), Slovenia (-3.7%) and the Czech Republic (-3.6%), while increases were registered in Hungary (+2.3%), Bulgaria (+1.7%), Slovakia (+1.6%) and Spain (+1%).
In terms of the annual comparison, the increase of 3.5% in production in construction in the Euro area in May 2014, compared with May 2013, is due to building construction rising by 5.3% while civil engineering fell by 2.6%. In the EU28, the increase of 3.2% is due to building construction rising by 5% while civil engineering dropped by 2.5%.
The highest increases in production in construction were registered in Spain (+42.4%), Slovenia (+41.8%), Hungary (+28.7%) and Poland (+6.8%), and the largest decreases in Romania (-10.3%), Portugal (-10.2%), the Netherlands (-4.0%) and Germany (-2.5%).
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