Recent Updates
- US: Consumer Sentiment (Jan-prelim), Mfg & Trade Inventories & Sales (Nov), IP & Capacity Utilization, Adv Retail Sales, Producer Prices (Dec)
- US: Industrial Production Detail (Dec)
- US: Producer Price Indexes by Commodity Detail (Dec)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Empire State Manufacturing Index Declines in January
The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions decreased to 3.5 in January...
U.S. Industrial Production Continues Recovery
Industrial production advanced 1.6% in December...
U.S. PPI Rose 0.3% in December
The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.3% (0.8% y/y) in December...
U.S. Business Inventories Accumulate during November as Sales Weaken
Total business inventories increased 0.5% during November (-3.2% y/y)...
The EMU Trade Surplus Stabilizes
Both exports and imports have been regaining momentum...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Gerald D. Cohen June 3, 2019
The value of construction put-in-place was flat in April (-1.2% year-on-year) following an upwardly-revised 0.1% gain in March (was -0.9%). February was also revised higher, to 1.0% from 0.7%. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected a 0.5% rise. Given the positive revisions to previous months, on net, this report was stronger than expected. And, based on this data, the construction spending portion of first quarter GDP is likely to be revised higher. In the first quarter GDP report released last Thursday private construction spending (nonresidential + residential) subtracted 0.1 percentage point from GDP growth.
The private and public sectors exhibited significantly different spending patterns. The 1.7% drop in private construction (-6.0% y/y) in April was offset by a 4.8% jump in public spending (+15.1% y/y).
The fall in private spending was concentrated in nonresidential construction (-2.9%; +0.6% y/y). The decline was fairly broad based, though led by 7.2% drop in the volatile manufacturing sector (+11.5% y/y). Residential construction declined 0.6% (-11.4% y/y), with a 2.3% rise in multifamily (+7.9% y/y) offset by a 2.5% decrease in home improvements (-21.7% y/y). Meanwhile, single family activity was an unchanged (-7.6% y/y).
Nonresidential construction, which makes up 98% of public construction, jumped 4.8% in April (15.4% y/y). Construction of highways and streets, the largest category in the public sector, jumped 6.8% (21.3% y/y) after a 21.9% gain in the three months ending in March. Education construction, the second largest category, rose 2.1% (9.6% y/y). Public residential construction grew 4.6% (-0.6% y/y).
The construction spending figures, some of which date back to 1946, are in Haver's USECON database. The expectations reading can be found in the AS1REPNA database.
Construction Put in Place (SA, %) | Apr | Mar | Feb | Apr Y/Y | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.0 | -1.2 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 7.0 |
Private | -1.7 | 0.0 | 0.1 | -6.0 | 3.1 | 7.1 | 9.2 |
Residential | -0.6 | -1.2 | -0.7 | -11.4 | 2.8 | 12.4 | 10.7 |
Nonresidential | -2.9 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 7.7 |
Public | 4.8 | 0.5 | 3.9 | 15.1 | 6.4 | -3.2 | 0.7 |