New Construction starts slipped in May
| New York
Soaring interest rates and budgetary restraint combined to deepen the decline of contracting for new construction in May, as the month's volume of contracts sagged around 7 percent below April's already weak total, reports the F. W. Dodge division of the McGraw-Hill Information Systems Co.
May's $13.4 billion of new construction starts brought the seasonally adjusted Dodge index of total construction contract value to 160 (1972 100), down 7 percent from April's 172 and 22 percent below last November's peak. The latest month's annualized rate of contracting, at $145.3 billion, was the lowest of the past nine months, slipping below 1980's average le vel of $147.3 billion for the first time this year.
