The Italian construction industry continues to struggle

The recovery in the Italian construction industry that began to emerge at the end of 2015 failed to live up to expectations in the first half of the current year.

In its forecasting report for the construction industry published last December, ANCE (Italian National Building Contractors’ Association) announced forecasts of 1% growth in construction investments in real terms in 2016 after an uninterrupted eight-year downturn that saw construction investments decline by 34.9%.

The expected turnaround was based mainly on an estimated 6% year-on-year growth in volume in the public works sector. This forecast no longer appears achievable and the new estimate for growth in public works has been revised down to +0.4% in real terms (+1.4% at current value).

In this context, the scenario envisaged by ANCE for the current year is 0.3% real-term growth in construction investments (+1.3% at current value), a level of growth that is entirely insufficient for an effective recovery of the sector.

• Read the complete interview published on Brick World Review 2/2016