Global| Aug 01 2013U.S. Construction Spending Backpedals
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The value of construction put-in-place declined 0.6% (+3.3% y/y) during June after a revised 1.3% May jump, initially reported as 0.5%. April's increase also was revised up to 1.1% from 0.1%. A 0.3% rise in activity had been expected. [...]
The value of construction put-in-place declined 0.6% (+3.3% y/y) during June after a revised 1.3% May jump, initially reported as 0.5%. April's increase also was revised up to 1.1% from 0.1%. A 0.3% rise in activity had been expected. Declines in building activity were logged across sectors. The value of public sector building experienced the largest decline and was off 1.1% (-9.3% y/y). The weakest areas were conservation & development, off 8.4% (-12.0% y/y), water supply, down 6.0% (-0.1% y/y) and highways & streets, off 2.8% (-12.4% y/y). Working the other way were health care building, up 3.9% (3.9% y/y) and transportation, up 2.4% (7.4% y/y).
Private sector building activity also showed weakness, posting a 0.4% decline (+9.7% y/y) in June. That reflected a roughly unchanged (18.1% y/y) level of residential building. It owed to a 3.3% collapse (+40.6% y/y) in multi-family construction and a 0.8% drop (+28.2% y/y) in single-family building. Spending on improvements rose 1.7% (4.4% y/y). Nonresidential building activity declined 0.9% (+1.4% y/y), pulled lower by a 6.6% slump (-0.8% y/y) in education and a 5.6% drop (0.0% y/y) in commercial building. Amusements & recreation building was off 2.5% (+8.5% y/y).
The construction spending figures are in Haver's USECON database and the expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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