Construction Spending Down 0.6% in November

WASHINGTON — Construction spending fell 0.6% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $900.1 billion, the category’s seventh consecutive monthly decline, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.

Economists expected construction spending to fall 0.4% in November, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Spending in October was revised down to a 0.5% decline from the flat level initially reported.

Construction spending has not increased since April. Through the first 11 months of 2009, construction spending fell 12.7% from the same period in 2008.

Private residential construction declined 1.6%, the largest drop since June. The figure jumped 4.8% in October, revised higher from the 4.4% initially reported. ­Nonresidential private construction was unchanged for November and fell 4.8% in October. Total private construction fell 0.7% in November

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