The General Construction Production Index (IPCO) advanced in April by 1.4% in the original series, ending a streak of three consecutive months of declines, according to data published this Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The increase in activity in the sector during April is mainly explained by the strong pull of civil engineering, which soared by 26.7%, and by the growth of specialized construction activities, which increased by 6.7%. Conversely, building construction registered a sharp drop of 29.5% year-on-year.
If the series corrected for seasonal and calendar effects is analyzed, construction production recorded a decrease of 3.8% in April compared to the same month in 2025, thus moderating the drop of 5.8% that had been observed in March.
The calendar and seasonally adjusted indices showed positive annual variations in two of the three divisions studied. Civil engineering once again led the advances with an increase of 26.6%, while the only negative variation corresponded to building construction, with a decrease of 30.5%.
In monthly comparison (April versus March) and after eliminating seasonal and calendar effects, the production of the construction sector rose by 0.9%, which represents a growth 1.5 points lower than that registered in the previous month.
By divisions, civil engineering was the only one that presented a positive monthly rate, with an increase of 11.5%, while specialized construction activities recorded the sharpest decrease, of 0.8%.
This new statistic, called IPCO, replaces the old Survey of Construction Industry Production Indices (EIPIC), prepared until December 2025 by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility. The INE has specified that the IPCO rates corresponding to the years 2025 and 2026 are calculated from estimates based on the combination of information from both statistical operations.
The objective of the IPCO is to track monthly the evolution of the activity of companies that make up the construction sector in Spain, taking their added value as a reference.
Furthermore, the IPCO complies with the statistical requirements of the European Union, which allows it to be a harmonized and comparable indicator with those of other member countries.
Statistics detail that a company's turnover is composed of two elements: production and unit price or associated cost. Therefore, it considers that the most appropriate way to estimate production is by discounting the effect of prices on turnover through its deflation.
In order to minimize the information burden for companies, the IPCO requests only data on turnover, instead of requiring the detail of sales and other components necessary to reconstruct it. In this way, the methodology resembles that used to measure production in the services sector.