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Australia’s building industry contracted in April for the first time in three months as apartment building slumped and an engineering boom slowed.
The performance-of-construction index fell 3.2 points from March to 47.9, according to a report by the Australian Industry Group and Housing Industry Association released in Canberra. A reading below 50 indicates the building industry is contracting.
A slowing construction industry, which employs one in 10 Australian workers, may put a brake on the nation’s economic expansion, now in its 16th year. The central bank’s three interest rate increases last year have dented apartment construction, and engineering work is cooling as miners complete expansion projects.
