In the first quarter of this year Croatian construction firms operating abroad carried out works worth 173.8 million kuna, which was 27.4 per cent less than at the same time in 2004.
At the same time, the value of contracts signed by domestic construction companies to be executed abroad was 238.7 million kuna, with the volume of new orders dropping by 29.7 per cent from the same period last year.
Croatian building companies operating abroad employed an average of 2,051 workers, who put in a total of 997,000 hours of work.
By type of construction, 37.4 per cent of works accounted for buildings and 62.6 per cent for other structures.
As much as 85 per cent of the construction works, valued at 148.2 million kuna, were carried out in Germany. Works carried out in Russia were valued at 13.7 million kuna, those in Great Britain at slightly over 3 million kuna, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina at 2.5 million kuna.
In the first quarter of 2005 a vast majority of new orders, nearly 94 per cent, also came from Germany and were valued at 224.1 million kuna.
(1 euro = 7.29 kuna)