Construction output expanded by robust 15.2% in May, a shade above our forecast of the 12.5% growth. The pace remained in the 15-16% corridor where it has been most of this year. Wages grew by modest 1.1% and the number of employed even fell by 0.2% in May. The growth stems from busy investment by industrial firms and seems to remain robust well into the future, albeit at lower numbers as it will be compared to already revived data from late 2000. For the whole year we thus expect the growth of around 10%.
(Martin Kupka)