Construction industry rising from the rubble?

(JB) The construction sector appears to be making a slow recovery in Luxembourg, growing 8.8% during the first three months of the year.

It may be promising news for a struggling sector which experienced a -2.8% shrinkage in the last quarter of 2010 and last week saw local construction firm Pedinotti go bankrupt.

The promising figures are echoed in a general upward economical trend in Luxembourg's GDP, according to a STATEC report on the first quarter of 2011.

It showed a GDP growth of 4.9% in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the same period in 2010.

Not all sectors are out of the shadow of financial crisis, however. The financial services shrank -4.1% in the first quarter of 2011, following a downward trend which resulted in -1.6% and -1.7% growth in the second and third quarters of 2010.

There was a positive sign that consumer confidence is being restored.

Households appear to be loosening the purse strings as household expenditure grew slightly by 0.3% from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the first three months of 2011.

Conversely, public administration expenditure dropped by -3.1% over the same period.