Dive Brief:

• Figures for the last quarter of 2013 showed that investment in nonresidential structures slipped 1.2% from the third quarter, though the larger category into which it is folded grew 3.8%.
• Associated Builders and Contractors, in analyzing the gross domestic product figures released by the Department of Commerce saw good news, however, for construction this year.
• Commercial construction generally is a lagging indicator of the economy, Chief Economist Anirban Basu said, so the fourth quarter reflected a poor economy in 2013, and improvements over the course of the year should foreshadow better times for construction in 2014.

Dive Insight:

The fact that 2013 pulled out a 1.9% growth in GDP is thanks largely to third-quarter and fourth-quarter performance. Overall GDP rose 4.1% in the third quarter and 3.2% in the fourth. Of course, those are all preliminary numbers, and the government will look at data that are yet to come in and issue two revisions to the GDP before closing the books on last year.