The U.S. Commerce Department reported Monday that real estate construction spending dipped to $1.21 trillion in May.
MarketWatch reported that investors had expected an 0.2 percent increase, according to the Washington Times, rather than the 0.4 decline that occurred. April saw a decline of 0.2 percent, marking the first two-month decline since March 2003, and the largest decline since September 2004.
Residential project spending dropped to $651.2 billion, or by 0.2 percent, with private project outlays declining to 939.4 billion, by 0.6 percent.
Public sector spending did the exact opposite, increasing to an all-time high of $277.8 billion, an overall increase of 0.7 percent.
The U.S. economy grew at an overall 5.6 percent in the first quarter of 2006.
Comment Preview