U.S. construction spending rose by 0.2 percent in March despite a decline in housing activity, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

The gain pushed construction spending in March up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.19 trillion dollars. Still, it was 2.0 percent below the year-ago level.

During the first three months of this year, construction spending amounted to 250.3 billion dollars, 2.4 percent below the 256.5 billion dollars for the same period in 2006.

The report showed that spending on private construction increased 0.2 percent in March to an annual rate of 900.3 billion dollars. Of that, residential construction fell by 1.0 percent to an annual rate of 568.8 billion dollars.

Private nonresidential construction, however, was up 2.4 percent to an annual rate of 331.5 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, spending on public construction edged up 0.4 percent in March to an annual rate of 287.5 billion dollars in March.

Educational construction was at an annual rate of 75.2 billion dollars, up 2.1 percent from the previous month. Highway construction also climbed up 0.9 percent to 79.9 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua