Mubasher: Spending on US construction projects posted a meagre gain during August, as a decline in non-residential construction expenditure muted gain in house building investment.

Construction spending, including housing, non-residential and government building projects, inched up by 0.1% at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.287 trillion last August, from the revised $1.285 trillion in July, the US Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday.

Spending in July was downwardly revised to show no change from a gain of 0.1%.

Outlays for non-residential construction fell by 0.4% to $773.85 billion in August, whereas investment in residential projects climbed by 0.9% to $513.46 billion.

On an annualised basis, US construction expenditure dropped by 1.9% last August.

By 2:27 pm GMT, the US dollar index edged up by 0.08% to 99.4540.