Total construction work done in Australia declined unexpectedly by 2.8 percent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to September 2018 to AUD 53.14 billion, after an upwardly revised 1.8 percent gain in the previous quarter and missing market estimates of a 1 percent gain. It was the first drop in construction output since the last quarter of 2017, driven by declines in all components: engineering work (-4.5 percent); non-residential (-2.4 percent); building (-1.5 percent); and residential (-1 percent). Through the year to the third quarter, construction work slumped 16.9 percent. Construction Output in Australia averaged 0.89 percent from 1986 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 16.60 percent in the third quarter of 2017 and a record low of -18.90 percent in the third quarter of 2000.
Construction Output in Australia is expected to be 1.50 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Construction Output in Australia to stand at 1.33 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Australia Construction Output is projected to trend around 0.20 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.