CRH, the Dublin-headquartered international building materials group, says in a trading statement issued this morning, that while the rate of profit decline in the second quarter eased substantially compared with the first three months of 2009, the global recessionary environment led to weaker than anticipated trading in May and June. Against this backdrop CRH expects that EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for the seasonally less profitable first half of the year will show a decline of approximately 40% (H1 2008: €1.1 billion). Profit before tax is expected to be of the order of €0.1 billion after restructuring costs of approximately €75 million and an adverse translation impact at profit before tax level of approximately €20 million. This compares with a first-half 2008 profit before tax outturn of €0.6 billion. The outlook is for trading conditions to remain extremely challenging but profit performance will improve.