Contraction Slows For Australia Construction Sector





An index monitoring activity in Australia's construction sector saw a seasonally adjusted score of 46.2 in March, the Australian Industry Group and Housing Industry Association said on Monday in their Performance of Construction Index - up from 44.2 in February. Construction activity contracted for the third straight month, the survey showed, as a score below 50 signals decline and a score above 50 means expansion.
"As is the case with the broader economy, the rebalancing of the construction sector as mining-related activity slows still has a considerable way to go," said AiG Director of Public Policy Peter Burn in a release accompanying the data.
Among the individual components of the survey, the new orders sub-index saw its contraction slow dramatically, jumping from 39.5 in February to 48.3 in March.
The employment sub-index continued to weaken, falling from 46.0 in February to 42.7. The sub-index for construction climbed from 45.3 in February to 48.3 in March. House building dipped from 52.2 in the previous month to 50.8, while apartment building fell from 46.6 to 45.6.
Commercial construction tumbled from 59.9 to 56.5 points, and engineering construction surged from 39.7 to 45.5.
"What the sector and broader economy needs, however, is a sustained recovery in new home building commensurate with average construction levels being considerably higher over coming decades than those achieved over the past 20 years," said HIA chief economist Harley Dale.


News are provided by InstaForex.