Greece's construction sector contracted by more than a quarter in August compared with a year earlier, data showed on Thursday, continuing a slump that is deepening the country's worst peacetime downturn after five years of recession.
Once a key growth driver for the 215-bln-euro economy, construction activity has been the sector hardest hit by the austerity measures Greece has implemented in return for the international aid that keeps it afloat.
Having fallen behind its deficit targets, the twice bailed-out country has agreed to pile on additional taxes as well as wage and pension cuts that stifle demand for new homes.
Building volume was down 27.5% year-on-year in August, the statistics service ELSTAT said.
It said 1,210 building permits were issued in August alone, 48.2% fewer than in the same month last year. The sector declined a cumulative 27.3% in the first nine months of the year, based on the number of building permits.
Almost half of Greece's construction workers have lost their jobs since 2007, according to ELSTAT.
The spending cuts, together with tighter bank credit, have squeezed household disposable incomes, while a property levy to fill state coffers has also taken its toll.
Construction activity shrank by an annual 12% in the first half of the year, leaving the industry on course for a seventh consecutive year of contraction.
UNEMPLOYMENT HITS NEW RECORD
Meanwhile, the jobless rate rose for a 39th consecutive month to a new record of 25.4% in August, more than double the euro zone average, ELSTAT said.
A crippling, austerity-fuelled recession continued to take its toll on the labour market, putting Greek unemployment at more than double the euro zone average of 11.5%.
The jobless rate has more than tripled since the country's five-year economic slump began in 2008. It now stands at 58% for those aged between 15 and 24 years, compared with 20% in August 2008.
Greece's economy is estimated to have shrunk by about a fifth since then. The slump is expected to continue in 2013 when the government is set to take budget cuts and tax increases worth 9.4 bln euros as a pre-condition to receive more funds under its international bailout.
A record 1.27 mln Greeks were without work in August, up 38% from the same month last year.
The August jobless rate was the EU's second highest, behind fellow euro zone sufferer Spain, whose unemployment rate stood at 25.5%, according to Eurostat.
The European Commission forecast this week that the Greek labour market would bottom out in 2013, with unemployment slipping to around 22% in 2014, the economy's first year of modest recovery after six consecutive years of recession.
