U.S construction investment suffers biggest drop since 2002

Investment in public U.S construction projects in June 2017 fell “unexpectedly” in the biggest drop since 2002, a report has found.

In a report from The Commerce Department, also revealed that construction spending had fallen by 1.3%, meaning the overall figure stood at $1.21 trn, which was also the lowest level since 2016.

This comes at a time where economists had estimated that construction spending would increase by 0.4% in June, following an unchanged May.

On a year-on-year basis, construction spending had increased 1.6 percent.

Investment public construction projects also decreased throughout June, plunging 5.4 percent, which as mentioned before represents the biggest drop since March 2002.

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As a consequence, construction spending dropped to its lowest level since February 2014.

Expenses on state and local government construction projects fell 5.1 percent, recording yet again the largest fall since March 2002.

In a similar vein, federal government construction spending dropped 9.3 percent, the largest drop since December 2010.

Spending on private construction projects fared slightly better, slipping only 0.1 percent after a similar drop in May. Investment in private residential construction fell 0.2 percent.

Spending on private non-residential structures edged up 0.1 percent in June after surging 0.6 percent in May. Investment in residential and non-residential structures such as oil and gas wells is slowing as the boost from oil prices fades.