Total construction work done in Australia declined unexpectedly by 1.9 percent in the three months to March 2019, after a downwardly revised 2.1 percent drop in the previous month and missing market expectations of a flat reading. Construction output declined for the third consecutive quarter, driven by falls in engineering work (-3.9 percent), residential (-2.5 percent) and building work (-0.4 percent). Conversely, non-residential output grew by 3.6 percent. Through the year to the first quarter, construction output fell by 6 percent. Construction Output in Australia averaged 0.85 percent from 1986 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 17.80 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 0.45 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 1.10 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.