Construction Spending Drops 1.4% in December

Spending on construction projects fell 1.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.054 trillion in December as private construction decreased 1.7% and public construction slid 0.8%, according to Commerce Department figures released yesterday.

The overall decrease, which was larger than the 1.2% decrease projected by Thomson Reuters, followed a revised November level of $1.069 trillion, a 1.2% decline from October, originally reported as a 0.6% decline to $1.078 trillion.

Spending on total private construction, fell 1.7% to $737.1 billion in December, compared with a 2.3% decline in November to $749.6 billion, originally reported as a 1.5% decrease to $756.4 billion. Total private construction was down 7.6% from December 2007.

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