An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data from the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has shown nonresidential construction spending to have increased moderately by 0.2% in March. It follows February's decline of 1.0%. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, nonresidential spending now totals $1.19 trillion.

Spending was up in 10 of the 16 nonresidential subcategories on a monthly basis. Private nonresidential spending increased 0.2%, while public nonresidential construction spending expanded by 0.8%. The market for residential construction, conversely, was shown to have decreased by 0.7% over February.

"Nonresidential construction spending rebounded in March, ending a streak of two straight monthly declines," ABC's Chief Economist Anirban Basu said. "The increase was entirely due to increased public construction spending; private sector nonresidential spending dipped slightly lower in March. Despite wavering over the first three months of 2024, nonresidential spending is now up approximately 35% from the start of the pandemic and has outpaced economywide inflation (+20%) over that span."

ABC's recent analysis of construction input price data for the month can also be found here.