U.S. construction spending rose by 0.3 percent in February, the biggest gain since a 1.0 percent increase in March 2006, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The performance was much better than the 0.6 percent drop forecast by analysts for construction spending in February.

The unexpected gain pushed total U.S. construction spending to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.171 trillion dollars in February.

Data showed that spending on private construction edged up 0.2 percent in February to an annual rate of 884.4 billion dollars. Of that, residential construction fell by 1.0 percent to an annual rate of 562.4 billion dollars, marking the 11th straight decline.

Private nonresidential construction, however, increased by 2.3 percent to an annual rate of 322.0 billion dollars. The gain was the largest since an increase of 3 percent in August of last year.

Meanwhile, spending on public construction was up 0.4 percent in February to an annual rate of 286.4 billion dollars in February.

Educational construction was at an annual rate of 74.5 billion dollars, up 0.4 percent from the previous month. Highway construction also climbed up 0.4 percent to 78.8 billion dollars.

Analysts say that the expansion in construction spending, together with gains in consumer spending and incomes, should help ease concerns about the health of the U.S. economy, which has slowed down significantly because of a slump in the housing sector and troubles in the auto industry.

The Federal Reserve reported Friday that U.S. consumer spending rose by 0.6 percent in February, the best showing since December, while personal incomes also advanced 0.6 percent.

Source: Xinhua