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Economy in Brief
U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Index Plummets in August; Lowest Since May '20
The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions plunged to -31.3 in August...
U.S. Import and Export Prices Fall in July; Deepest Since April 2020
Import prices fell 1.4% m/m (8.8% y/y) in July...
U.S. Housing Affordability Declines Further in June
The NAR Fixed Rate Mortgage Housing Affordability Index fell 3.6% in June...
EMU Output Makes Solid Gain in June
The European Monetary Union posted a 0.7% increase for industrial output in June...
U.S. Producer Prices Fall During July; Core Increase Weakens
The Producer Price Index for Final Demand fell 0.5% during July...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller January 31, 2007
The value of construction put in place in December fell 0.4% after an upwardly revised 0.1% November uptick. Consensus expectations had been for no change.
For the full year, construction spending grew 4.8%, the weakest since 2002 after 2005's 10.7% surge.
Residential building continued it's recent rate of decline, despite warmer temperatures, and fell 1.6%. New single family building dropped 2.2% after a 3.o% slide during November and it lowered activity 22.2% below the peak this past February. Spending on improvements also slipped 0.2% (+7.8% 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.
Nonresidential building rose 0.9% after an unrevised 1.4% November jump. Office construction surged 1.4% (22.1% y/y) and multi-retail building soared 4.1% (21.4% y/y).
Public construction spending rose 0.6%. Spending on highways & streets, nearly one third of the value of public construction spending, fell 1.1% (+9.6% 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 | December | November | Y/Y | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | -0.4% | 0.1% | -1.4% | 4.8% | 10.7% | 11.5% |
Private | -0.8% | -0.5% | -4.6% | -4.6% | 12.0% | 14.3% |
Residential | -1.6% | -1.4% | -12.5% | -1.7% | 13.9% | 18.6% |
Nonresidential | 0.9% | 1.4% | 14.5% | 16.2% | 7.4% | 5.3% |
Public | 0.6% | 2.2% | 10.5% | 10.2% | 6.2% | 2.8% |