Construction spending dip the first in more than year

By |  January 4, 2016

U.S. construction spending fell for the first time in nearly 1 1/2 years in November, according to Reuters. A drop in nonresidential investment offset an increase in housing activity.

Construction spending dipped 0.4 percent. This was the first spending dip since June 2014, the Department of Commerce reports. The dip follows a 0.3 percent gain in October.

Reuters also reports that the government revised construction data from January 2005 through October 2015 because of a “processing error in the tabulation of data.” The revisions, which showed construction spending was not as strong as previously reported for much of 2015, could prompt economists to lower their fourth-quarter gross domestic product estimates, according to Reuters.

Growth estimates are currently hovering below a 2.0 percent annual pace. The economy expanded at a 2.0 percent rate in the third quarter.

Economists whom Reuters polled had forecast construction spending to rise 0.6 percent in November after a previously reported 1.0 percent increase in October.

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