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Economy in Brief
U.S. Consumer Credit Outstanding Declines in January
Consumers reduced credit balances further in January...
U.S. Trade Deficit Widens to $68.2 Billion in January
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $68.2 billion in January...
German Order Growth Gets Back in Gear Despite the Headwinds
German order growth is back in gear with total orders rising by 1.4% m/m in January...
U.S. Factory Orders & Shipments Rise Again in January
Manufacturing activity is strengthening. Factory orders rose 2.6% (2.8% y/y) in January...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Rise Just 9,000
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose modestly by 9,000 to 745,000 in the week ended February 27...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller June 1, 2005
The total value of construction put in place rose another 0.5% in April and about matched Consensus expectations for a 0.7% gain.
Private residential building activity rose 0.6% for the second month but the value of new single family building declined 0.1% (+11.1% y/y), the first sequential decline since September. Building on new multi-family units jumped 1.4% (16.5% y/y).
Nonresidential building surged 1.3% led higher by a 1.8% (3.0% y/y) advance in office building. Manufacturing building also rose a strong 1.3% (38.7% y/y) but spending on power facilities fell 3.5% (-5.3% y/y).
Public construction fell as spending on highways & streets, nearly one third of the value of public construction spending, dropped for the second consecutive month (-3.7% y/y).
These more detailed categories represent the Census Bureaus reclassification of construction activity into end-use groups. Finer detail is available for many of the categories; for instance, commercial construction is shown for Automotive sales and parking facilities, drugstores, building supply stores, and both commercial warehouses and mini-storage facilities. Note that start dates vary for some seasonally adjusted line items in 2000 and 2002 and that constant-dollar data are no longer computed.
Construction Put-in-place | April | March | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 0.5% | 0.6% | 8.2% | 8.9% | 5.1% | 1.5% |
Private | 0.8% | 0.7% | 10.9% | 10.7% | 6.0% | -0.2% |
Residential | 0.6% | 0.6% | 13.3% | 13.9% | 13.1% | 8.4% |
Nonresidential | 1.3% | 1.0% | 5.3% | 3.7% | -7.1% | -12.8% |
Public | -0.4% | 0.4% | -0.4% | 3.3% | 2.6% | 7.0% |