The global economic recession undercut construction costs worldwide, according to London-based international project and cost-management firm Gardiner & Theobald Inc. in its eighteenth annual survey of international costs conducted exclusively for ENR. G&T’s survey covered 50 countries.
In Europe, 12 out of 20 countries reporting construction-cost figures for 2009 experienced deflation averaging 8.3%. Of the remaining eight European nations, construction inflation averaged a modest 2.2%. That matched last year’s average inflation rate for the group, when only four countries reported falling costs. In 2007, construction inflation in Europe averaged 4.6%.