Eurozone construction output improves

Eurozone construction output is growing more strongly, official data showed on Tuesday, indicating the second quarter will make a good recovery from an extremely slow start to the year.

Eurozone construction output increased 1.8% month-to-month in April, data from the Eurostat statistical office showed on Tuesday, with the year-on-year figure also hitting 1.8% from an upwardly revised 1.2% in March.

A 4.0% jump in civil engineering, primarily in Germany, was the key driver but residential construction also increased 1%.

The highest increases in production in construction were recorded in Slovenia, Hungary and Germany, with France and Italy also positive, while the largest decreases were in Spain, Belgium and Slovakia.

UK construction rose 0.6% in April after a fall of 2.3 the month before.

"Finally, an upbeat economic report in the Eurozone," say economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics, after cold weather constrained large-scale building projects in the latter part of the first quarter, pushing activity forward to the beginning of the second.

They added: "Even if the headline index remains unchanged for the rest of the quarter, it would still increase a solid 1.5% quarter-on-quarter, rebounding from a 0.4% decline in Q1. As a result, we are confident that construction will provide a positive boost to GDP growth in Q2."