Hungary’s construction output fell by 10.7% year-on-year in May 2026, after a 2.6% increase in April, marking the weakest performance since January. The decline was driven primarily by civil engineering, where output plunged 21.9% after a 13.9% rise in the previous month. Within this segment, road and railway construction contracted by 46.2%, subtracting 38 percentage points from overall civil engineering performance.
Building construction output also declined but at a slower pace, contracting by 4.2% year-on-year in May compared with a 6.2% fall in April. A 12.4% increase in specialised construction activities—the largest segment of the industry—helped to partially offset a 19.1% drop in building construction and a 34.9% slump in civil engineering output.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, total construction activity decreased by 6.5% in May, reversing a 6.9% increase in April. Over the January–May period, the volume of construction output was down by 4.3% compared with the same period a year earlier.
