Statistics: Number of house building permits drops by 46 percent

2,251 house building permits were issued in January 2010, a 46.1 percent decrease as opposed to January 2009, a release of the National Institute of Statistics informs.The number of construction permits for residential buildings released in January 2010 was 1,904, a 22.9 percent decrease in comparison with January 2009. Out of the total number of construction permits for residential buildings issued in January 2010, 64.2 percent are for the rural areas. According to Agerpres, the number of construction permits for residential buildings dropped in all development regions. The most notable decreases were registered in South-Muntenia region, where the number of permits dropped by 116, South-East (minus 104 permits), North-West (minus 94 permits) and Bucharest-Ilfov (minus 93 permits).