* Estonian construction production slowed to an annual growth of 7% in the second quarter, the Statistics Estonia said, Wednesday. This compares with the annual growth of 24% in the first quarter, revised up from 23% in the initial estimates. Construction output soared 34% on an annual basis in the same period of the previous year. Construction output had averaged 20% growth in the previous years, the Statistics Estonia said.
In the second quarter, 6% of overall growth came from the domestic market, pushed by strong growth in the building construction sector. The slow down in construction output was attributed to increases in construction prices and interest rates. Yet, overall expenditure on construction activity gained 15.2% annually. In comparison, the 33.33% annual surge in construction production in foreign countries was bolstered by increases in production of both building construction and civil engineering.
The total production value of construction enterprises was 9.9 billion kroons in the second quarter. The production value of building construction climbed 14% annually to 7.0 billion kroons, while the production value of civil engineering slipped 6%, to 2.9 billion kroons. Building construction soared 29% annually in the previous quarter to 5.6 billion kroons, while civil engineering production gained 3% to 1.4 billion kroons.
The number of dwelling completions was 2,105 in the second quarter, a gain of 1,200 dwellings from the same period of the last year. Over three quarters of the completed dwellings were situated in blocks of flats, the Statistics Estonia observed. Most of the buildings were in Tallinn, its neighborhood and Parnu city.
The second quarter witnessed the completion of 235 non-residential buildings, with useful floor area of 271,200 square meters, while 273 non-residential buildings with a useful floor area of 228,900 square meters were completed in the preceding quarter. The useful floor area of industrial and commercial buildings witnessed the highest growth in the second quarter. Despite rising interest rates, 3,319 building permits for new dwellings were granted in the second quarter, compared to 2,739 new dwelling permits issued in the first quarter.
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