With spending on public construction showing a substantial drop in the month of March, the Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing an unexpected decrease in total construction spending for the month.
The report showed that construction spending fell 1.7 percent to an annual rate of $856.7 billion in March from the revised February estimate of $871.2 billion. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected spending to increase by 0.6 percent.
The unexpected drop in construction spending in March was partly due to a 4.1 percent decrease in spending on public construction, which followed a 1.5 percent increase in February.
Spending on highway construction tumbled by 5.2 percent in March, while spending on educational construction fell by 2.9 percent.
The report showed that spending on private construction fell by a more modest 0.6 percent in March after jumping by 2.2 percent in February.
A 0.4 percent increase in spending on residential construction helped to offset a 1.5 percent decrease in spending on non-residential construction.
Despite the monthly decrease, the Commerce Department noted that total construction spending for March is up by 4.8 percent compared to $817.8 billion in the same month a year ago.
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