With spending on both private and public construction falling rather sharply, the Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday unexpectedly showing a steep drop in total U.S. construction spending in the month of April.
The Commerce Department said construction spending tumbled by 1.8 percent to an annual rate of $1.134 trillion in April from a revised $1.155 trillion in March.
The revised estimate for March reflected a 1.5 percent jump versus the previously reported 0.3 percent increase.
The sharp pullback came as a surprise to economists, who had expected construction spending to rise by about 0.6 percent.
Despite the monthly decrease, the April figure is up by 4.5 percent compared to $1.085 trillion in the same month a year ago.
The unexpected decline versus the previous month was partly due to a significant decrease in spending on private construction, which fell by 1.5 percent to a rate of $843.1 billion.
Spending on both residential and non-residential construction slumped by 1.5 percent to rates of $439.7 billion and $403.5 billion, respectively.
The report also showed that spending on public construction plunged by 2.8 percent to a rate of $290.8 billion, partly reflecting a steep 6.6 percent drop in spending on highway construction.
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