Monthly Industry Briefings > Monthly Industry Forecasts > Construction

The construction put in place measure of construction activity in the US settled into a steady annual rate of advance of slightly more than 8% from January through to July. Subtracting construction cost increases, which are running at some 2½% per annum, leaves the underlying real pace of advance at 5.8% in July. Within the total, a shift of leadership has taken place; non-residential construction spending has been outpacing residential spending since April and this is now reflected in the annual growth rates, of 8.6% and 7.6% respectively. Growth in some of the sub-categories that pertain to infrastructure is particularly noteworthy: new expenditure on power infrastructure, a large category, soared 25.7% in the year to July. By contrast, highway and street construction rose a scant 2.7%.