Recent Updates
- Japan: ** Japan IP forecasts have rebased from 2010=100 to 2015=100. We are currently working on processing the new data.**
- ** New Zealand Jobs Online has changed its reported frequency from monthly to quarterly and rebased from August 2010=100 to Q4 2010=100. **
- Turkey: International Reserves (Mar); Mauritius: PPI Press (Mar)
- Spain: Flash GDP (Q1), Retail Trade (Mar)
- France: Preliminary CPI (Apr), Household Consumption of Manufactured Products (Mar)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Kansas City Federal Reserve Factory Index Hits Record High
The Kansas City Fed reported that its index of regional manufacturing sector business activity surged to a record 26...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Decline Sharply
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell sharply to 209,000 (-17.1% y/y)...
German Confidence Flattens and Falters
German confidence for May is mooted at a 97.8% queue percentile standing...
U.S. Mortgage Loan Applications Are Little Changed; Rates Remain High
The MBA total Mortgage Applications Volume Index eased 0.2% last week (-1.9% y/y)...
Japan Shows Very Moderate Growth As Trade War Clouds Gather
Japan’s sector indexes showed a solid gain in February...
by Tom Moeller January 3, 2007
The value of construction put in place in November fell 0,2% though the prior month's sharp drop was revised to more mild 0.3% dip. Nevertheless, it was the sixth decline in the last seven months. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.5% November decline.
Residential building again fell sharply. The 1.6% decline was the eighth consecutive monthly decline and it lowered the level of residential construction activity 11.3% below last December's peak. New single family building dropped 3.1% after a 3.8% slip during October and it lowered activity 20.8% below the peak this past February. Spending on improvements again made up for some that lost work and rose 0.6% (6.7% y/y).
During the last twenty years there has been an 84% correlation between the q/q change in the value of residential building and its contribution to growth in real GDP.
Housing: Boom or Bubble? from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is available here.
Nonresidential building rose 1.4% after an upwardly revised 0.5% October uptick. Lodging construction surged 3.9% (71.4% y/y) after a 7.8% October spike and office construction rose a solid 1.0% (30.9% y/y) after an upwardly revised October gain. Multi-retail building eased 0.6% (28.3% y/y) and gave back half of October's increase.
Public construction spending increased 1.0% after an upwardly revised 1.9% October surge. Spending on highways & streets, nearly one third of the value of public construction spending, ticked up 0.4% (13.7% y/y) but October's gain was revised up to 2.5%.
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 | November | October | Y/Y | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | -0.2% | -0.3% | 0.1% | 10.7% | 11.5% | 5.6% |
Private | -0.6% | -1.0% | -2.7% | 12.0% | 14.3% | 6.4% |
Residential | -1.6% | -1.7% | -11.1% | 13.9% | 18.6% | 12.8% |
Nonresidential | 1.4% | 0.5% | 18.0% | 7.4% | 5.3% | -4.8% |
Public | 1.0% | 1.9% | 10.6% | 6.2% | 2.8% | 2.9% |