15/5/15: Irish Construction PMI: April Stronger PMI, but Overall Activity is Weak

Irish Construction Sector PMI for April was released by Markit earlier this week. Here are the main points:

Overall Activity Index in Irish construction rose to 57.2 in April from 52.9 in March, bringing index back to the levels of January 2015. Current 3mo average is at 54.0 against 3mo average through January 2015 at 61.2, showing a clear slowdown in activity growth over most recent three months.

All three components of the index posted increases in April, with Civil engineering Activity index reaching above 50 marker (to read 51.0) for the first time since January 2015.

It is worth noting that Construction Sector PMIs have been pretty much out of touch with actual construction sector activity. Current readings on PMIs side signal blistering growth in activity and this is sustained, on average from the start of Q2 2013. Yet, Irish construction sector remains the second worst performing sector in the EU since the start of the crisis:

You can see the disconnection between PMIs (these are quarterly averages) and Construction sector actual performance setting in post Q2 2013 here: