Global| Apr 01 2014U.S. Construction Spending Growth Pulled Down by Severe Winter Weather
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The value of construction put-in-place eked out a 0.1% rise (8.7% y/y) during February following a revised 0.2% January slip, initially reported as a 0.1% gain. Recently weak performance lowered three-month growth in construction to [...]
The value of construction put-in-place eked out a 0.1% rise (8.7% y/y) during February following a revised 0.2% January slip, initially reported as a 0.1% gain. Recently weak performance lowered three-month growth in construction to 7.7% (AR), roughly half its earlier high. The latest figure matched expectations in the Action Economics Consensus Survey.
Private sector construction activity notched 0.1% higher (13.0% y/y) in February following a lowered 0.2% January rise. Residential building declined 0.8% (+13.5% y/y) as single-family home activity fell 1.1% (13.6% y/y), after three months of outsized increase. Multi-family building rose 2.6%, up 29.7% y/y, but spending on improvements declined 1.3% (+9.7% y/y). Nonresidential building activity gained 1.2% (12.5% y/y) and reversed its January fall.
The value of public sector building activity also ticked up 0.1% (-1.0% y/y) after a downwardly revised 1.3% January drop. Outlays to build power stations rose 6.1% (3.0% y/y) and spending on highways & streets posted a 1.4% increase (11.5% y/y). Spending here accounts for 30% of total public sector construction activity. Offsetting these gains was an 8.9% decline (-18.4% y/y) in water supply construction and a 1.2% drop (-8.7% y/y) in education building activity.
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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