COVID-19 Crisis Leads to Deep Recession in European Construction Industry. Euroconstruct Forecast until 2023

The momentum of European construction activity had slowed since 2017 and slumped sharply in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Construction volume in the 19 Euroconstruct countries shrank by 7.8 percent in real terms to 1,566 billion € in 2020. European residential construction and other building construction were hit hardest. These sectors were already in the downturn phase before the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis due to the economic situation. Construction is expected to catch up in 2021, but growth in all construction sectors will not be able to compensate for the decline in 2020. As forecasts by the Euroconstruct research network show, the construction volume from the pre-crisis year 2019 will not be reached until the end of 2023. The slump in the Austrian construction industry in 2020 was rather small by international standards, which is why construction volumes in Austria are likely to return to pre-crisis levels earlier.