Construction is recovering and growing, but it is not even close to the record year of 2008.

The number of building permits is significantly lower compared to the pre-crisis year of 2008, despite an increase in the past year, and measures for purchasing the first property and energy renovation of buildings financed from EU funds have certainly contributed to the increased demand for construction work, assesses the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) in its analysis on Wednesday.

DZS notes that from the record pre-crisis year of 2008 until 2016, when its recovery begins, construction was in decline and stagnation. This affected a number of related activities, such as the metal, chemical, and wood industries, as well as those of glass and metal, and its effect on stimulating the development of the service sector through investments in the renovation or construction of accommodation capacities and tourist content can also be observed.

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The analysis assesses that one of the indicators of growth in construction is the number of issued building permits – a total of 9,418 were issued last year, of which 82.6 percent related to buildings, and 17.4 percent to other structures. This represents an increase of 17.5 percent compared to 2016, with a 21.2 percent increase for buildings and a 2.6 percent increase for other structures.

– Despite the positive shift, the number of issued permits in 2017 was still 23.3 percent lower than in the pre-crisis year of 2008, emphasize DZS.

>>>Last year, 9,418 building permits were issued, 17.5 percent more than in 2016.

DZS assesses that measures for purchasing the first property and energy renovation of buildings financed from EU funds have certainly contributed to the increased demand for construction work.

As they state, during 2017, the number of issued building permits for apartments significantly increased, by 33.1 percent compared to 2016.

– Although this increase opens the door to optimism, skeptics will remember that it is still 49.1 percent lower than in the pre-crisis year of 2008, say DZS.

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Regarding the number of employees in construction, it amounted to just over 66 thousand in December 2017, which is 39.1 percent less than in December 2008.

In addition to the decline in the number of employees in construction, DZS notes that there has also been a decline in the number of active and registered legal entities, and in December of last year, their number was just over 22 thousand, of which 58.9 percent were active.