Slovak construction to rebound after 5-year decline

The Slovak construction industry in 2014 is poised to rebound after a five-year decline, but the estimated growth is negligible with respect to the drop of 41.8 percent that the industry has seen since 2008, new analysis showed Monday.
A return to pre-crisis levels isn't expected any time soon, according to a quarter analysis conducted by CEEC Research.
Following the almost 40-percent drop in recent years, the industry has now bottomed out, and no further worsening of the situation is expected.
It's, however, probable that there will be a growth of 1.2 percent in 2014 and of 3.5 percent next year. Large construction companies are even more optimistic, projecting figures of 2.8 percent for 2014."
The Slovak construction industry will begin a slow revival from the previous drop in the volume of construction output, which constituted a performance crisis. Unfortunately, the market has been hit by yet another crisis -- that of the business environment," said CEEC Research director Jiri Vacek.
According to Vacek, this crisis has been caused by a significant overabundance of construction capacity with respect to current demand.
"It will take several years for the market to deal with this crisis," added Vacek. Almost two-thirds of companies expect to see growth in revenues reaching 1.8 percent on average. The problem for many, however, lies in certain loss-generating orders or outstanding invoices from the past that are dragging figures down.