U.S. Construction Spending Increases for 3 Months

On August 1, the US Department of Commerce released data saying that due to the increase in spending on private residential construction, the US construction spending in June reached an annual rate of 842.1 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.4% from the previous month and the third consecutive month of growth. Compared with the same period of last year, construction expenditure increased by 7%.

In the same month, private construction expenditures in the United States were calculated at an annual rate of 567.9 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%. The expenditure on residential construction was 265.6 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 1.3% from the previous quarter. In terms of expenditure on public buildings, the government’s expenditure on public works projects such as highways and schools was US$274.2 billion, which was basically the same as the previous month.

Economists believe that recent construction activity in the United States has shown signs of recovery recently, but the current level of construction expenditure is only about half of the time when the market is healthy. It will take several years to recover to pre-crisis levels.