July construction spending off 0.6%

WASHINGTON - Construction spending was down 0.6% in July, with a 0.4% decline in private construction and a larger 1.4% drop in public construction, data released by the Commerce Department Friday morning showed.

Analysts had expected construction spending to rise 0.5% after a negative 1.3% reading for June. With the latest data, June construction was revised down to a 1.4% decrease, while May spending was revised up to a 1.6% increase from the 0.3% increase previously reported.

Private residential construction spending rose 0.8% in the month, with new home building rising 0.5% based on an MNI calculation. Single-family building rose 0.8%, while multi-family building saw a reverse decline of 0.8%. Construction excluding new homes, which captures remodeling was up 1.4% and up 16.5% year-over-year.

Private nonresidential construction was down 1.9% in July. There were declines in all categories, with commercial posting the largest drop of 4.7%.

Public construction saw another sharp decrease of 1.4% in July, following a 4.4% drop in June. State and local government spending, the much larger portion of public construction, was down 1.4% after a 3.9% decrease in June, while Federal government construction saw a more moderate decline of 1.2% in July after a 9.8% fall in June.

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Market News International is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See www.marketnews.com.
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