Construction Spending Increases Again in January

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onstruction spending rose 0.2% in January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

pending rose to a record $1.16 trillion annual rate, Commerce said. The gain followed a 1% rise in December.

January’s rise was the seventh straight monthly increase but the weakest of the seven months. The increase was well below economists’ forecasts of a 1.1% rise, Bloomberg reported.

Construction spending can boost demand for trucking services because spending increases the number of shipments of goods and building materials.

Residential construction spending rose 0.1% following a 0.9% gain.

Private non-residential construction rose 0.5% following a 1.1% gain in December. Total nonresidential construction, which includes offices, factories and schools, rose 0.3%.

onstruction spending by the federal government jumped 6.1%, while state and local spending fell 0.2%.

Year-over-year, government spending on construction rose 11.3% from last January.