Total construction work done in Australia declined 3.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to December 2018 to AUD 51.092 after an upwardly revised 3.6 percent decrease in the previous quarter and compared to market expectations of a 0.4 percent gain. It was the second fall in construction output since the last quarter of 2017, driven by declines in three of the four components: engineering work (-5.0 percent); building (-1.7 percent); and residential (-3.6 percent). On the other hand, non-residential output rose 1.9 percent. On an annual basis, output fell 2.6 percent, following a 17.4 percent decrease in the prior month. Construction Output in Australia averaged 0.87 percent from 1986 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 17.60 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 0.60 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 1.00 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.