Global| Aug 01 2005U.S. Construction Spending Down for Fifth Month This Year
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The June value of construction put in place fell 0.3% following a deepened decline in May. June was the fifth monthly drop this year. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.7% increase. The 2005 declines in construction spending [...]
The June value of construction put in place fell 0.3% following a deepened decline in May. June was the fifth monthly drop this year. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.7% increase.
The 2005 declines in construction spending generally have been moderate especially when set against a 7.5% upward spike in February.
Private residential building activity added to earlier month's declines with a 0.4% dip but remained up 9.1% versus last year. A 12.2% pop in February was driven by improvements. The value of new single family building rose 0.2% (7.6% y/y) for the seventh consecutive monthly gain.
Nonresidential building rose 0.2% following the downwardly revised 2.1% May decline. Multi-retail building was quite strong, up 2.3% (22.1% y/y), led by shopping mall construction which rose 15.8% (-7.2% y/y).
Public construction spending dipped 0.5% after an upwardly revised 3.2% May gain. Construction activity on highways & streets, nearly one third of the value of public construction spending, dipped 0.4% (+8.6% y/y).
These more detailed categories represent the Census Bureau’s 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 | June | May | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | -0.3% | -1.7% | 7.9% | 11.1% | 5.4% | 1.0% |
| Private | -0.2% | -3.1% | 8.1% | 13.8% | 6.3% | -0.4% |
| Residential | -0.4% | -3.4% | 9.1% | 18.5% | 12.9% | 8.5% |
| Nonresidential | 0.2% | -2.1% | 5.6% | 3.9% | -5.4% | -13.0% |
| Public | -0.5% | 3.2% | 7.2% | 2.5% | 2.7% | 5.7% |
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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