Boosted by the reunification in 1995, the German construction industry has boomed, despite the recession.
However, this year the sector should fall by between 2% and 3%, compared to 7% last year, and an extra 40,000 redundancies are expected on top of the 90,000 announced so far.
New orders are down 3% in the West and 8% in the East and supply is now beginning to outstrip demand, with the inevitable consequences on prices.
Le Figaro, 23 February 2002, p2