01 / State of play

The total activity index for February remained in positive territory, gaining two points on January to reach 54. However, it is still down on August, when it stood at 60 points. Repair and maintenance activity, which has been losing momentum since September, lost three points and fell below the no-growth line to 49 points.

On a sectoral basis, residential activity changed little, as its index ticked down a point to 54. Non-residential activity saw a 10-point gain in its index over the past month to stand at 61. Civil engineering continued to be volatile, abruptly losing 23 points over January’s figure to stand at 32, an eight-month low.

Both orders and tender enquiries indices have moved little in the past five months and remained stable in February. Orders remained flat relative to January, at 67 points, while tender enquiries ticked up by a point to 58.

Orders in the residential and non-residential sectors had a slight recovery from their recent slowdown – ticking back up by a point or two to 67 and 76 respectively – but civil engineering saw a serious deterioration, with the index falling 20 points to 40, its lowest figure since January 2012.

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