Lower levels of repair and maintenance work has been blamed for an NI-wide decline in the official measurement of construction output.

The Central Survey Unit of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has published the latest edition of the NI Construction Bulletin.

The primary measure of the value of construction output in Northern Ireland (the Index of Construction) is obtained from the Northern Ireland Quarterly Construction Enquiry (QCE) - a statutory survey of construction firms operating in Northern Ireland.

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The bulletin provides a measure of the value of construction output in Northern Ireland for the period 1 October to 31 December 2009.

The provisional seasonally adjusted Index of Construction for the period 1 October to 31 December 2009 was 94.1, down 1.0 points on the previous quarter (95.1), and down 4.4 points on the corresponding quarter in 2008 (98.5).

The estimated seasonally adjusted value of construction output (at 2005 prices) was £690m, a decrease of 1.0% (£7m) on the previous quarter (£697m) and a decrease of 4.6% (£33m) on the corresponding quarter in 2008 (£723m).

The decrease in the overall volume of construction output in the last quarter was accounted for primarily by a decline in repair and maintenance work.

The volume of new work stayed at broadly the same level as in the previous two quarters.

However, the report did reiterate that these results, particularly for the latest quarter, are provisional and subject to revision, as fuller information becomes available from subsequent returns in future quarters.

(NS/BMcC)