With a jump in spending on public construction offsetting a drop in spending on private construction, the Commerce Department released a report on Monday showing that U.S. construction spending was unchanged in the month of May.
The report said construction spending was unchanged at an annual rate of $1.23 trillion in May after falling by 0.7 percent in April. Economists had expected spending to rise by 0.2 percent.
The Commerce Department said spending on public construction surged up by 2.1 percent to an annual rate of $286.9 billion.
Spending on educational construction spiked by 5.1 percent to a rate of $74.3 billion, while spending on highway construction fell by 0.9 percent to a rate of $90.6 billion.
Meanwhile, the report said spending on private construction fell by 0.6 percent to an annual rate of $943.2 billion in May.
While spending on residential construction dropped by 0.6 percent to a rate of $509.6 billion, spending on non-residential construction slid by 0.7 percent to a rate of $433.6 billion.
The Commerce Department noted that total construction spending was up by 4.5 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
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Forex News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.