AGC: 1st-quarter structures investment tumbles; price indexes sink; hotel 'pipeline' shrinks

Real (net of inflation) gross domestic product tumbled 6.1 percent in the first quarter at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, following a 6.3 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2008, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today. Real investment in "nonresidential structures decreased 44 percent, compared with a decrease of 9.4 percent. ... Real residential fixed investment decreased 38 percent, compared with a decrease of 23 percent." Real investment in government structures shrank 17 percent, compared to -7.7 percent. Among major nonresidential types, real investment in commercial and health care structures fell 33 percent and 22 percent; manufacturing rose 42 percent and 10.5 percent; power and communications, -35 percent and -2 percent; and other, -32 percent and -17 percent, according to an April 29 Data DIGest report.

Read full article