Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The Commerce Department gave us more news today indicating that manufacturing isn’t bouncing back like Donald Trump promised. The Commerce Department released its data on construction spending for December.
It turns out that construction of manufacturing plants is down by 11.7 percent from its December 2016 level. It was running at $60,595 million annual pace in December of 2017, down from a $68,624 pace in December of 2016. This probably shouldn’t be a surprise given the $50 billion (0.26 percent of GDP) increase in the size of the trade deficit, but it does go against President Trump’s promises about bringing back manufacturing.
Another noteworthy change was a drop in construction spending on power plants of 10.8 percent. Also, spending on religious facilities fell by 8.3 percent.