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Economy in Brief
U.S. Advance Trade Deficit Narrowed Markedly in April
The advance estimate of the U.S. international trade deficit in goods narrowed to $105.9 billion in April...
As Inflation Overshoots, Are Central Banks Overdoing It?
This report is a reminder of how complicated inflation and monetary policy making can be...
U.S. GDP Decline is Little-Revised in Q1'22; Corporate Profits Fall
U.S. real GDP fell 1.5%, SAAR (+3.5% y/y) last quarter...
Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index Dips in May But Remains Strong
The Kansas City Fed reported that its manufacturing sector business activity index declined to 23 in May...
U.S. Pending Home Sales Decline Sharply in April
Home buying remains under pressure...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller March 1, 2012
After several months of strong increase, construction spending slipped in January. The 0.1% decline followed a 1.4% December rise and a 1.9% November gain that was revised up sharply. Gains in the Summer also were solid. Consensus expectations were for a 0.8% January increase and the level of activity was at its highest since December 2009.
Private sector spending slipped marginally due to a 1.5% decline (+16.6% y/y) in nonresidential building. Residential building rose 1.8% (6.7% y/y) as single-family construction increased 2.5% (5.5% y/y) and multi-family rose 0.7% (20.0% y/y). The value of spending on improvements increased 1.3% (6.4% y/y). The value of public sector building activity slipped 0.2% in January but the y/y decline stabilized at -0.5% following the worst comparison of -8.3% this past Summer.
The construction put-in-place figures are available in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in Haver's AS1REPNA database.
Construction Put in Place (%) | Jan | Dec | Nov | Y/Y | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | -0.1 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 7.1 | -1.7 | -11.3 | -15.3 |
Private | -0.0 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 11.7 | 1.0 | -15.2 | -22.4 |
Residential | 1.8 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 6.7 | -0.7 | -2.9 | -29.9 |
Nonresidential | -1.5 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 16.6 | 2.5 | -24.0 | -16.0 |
Public | -0.2 | 0.7 | 2.3 | -0.5 | -6.0 | -3.9 | 2.1 |