DUBLIN, May 8 (Reuters) - A recovery in the currently subdued U.S. residential construction market will inevitably take longer due to interest rates and inflation potentially staying higher for longer, the head of the largest building materials producer in the United States, CRH CRH.N, said on Thursday.

"The much needed recovery in U.S. residential is going to I think inevitably get pushed out," Jim Mintern told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting, saying a fall in U.S. mortgage interest rates was required to spur activity.

"We did not factor in a recovery in '25, we always thought it would be into '26 before it would come but I think now potentially with inflation and interest rates higher for longer on the dollar side, that's going to push that out."

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Writing by Conor Humphries)

((conor.humphries@thomsonreuters.com; +353 1 236 1915;))