Australia Q3 construction work done preview - NAB

Analysts at National Australia Bank (NAB) note that the key risk event for the Aussie this week will be the Q3 construction work done due on the cards tomorrow.

Key Quotes:

“Last quarter's +9% reading was bloated by the technical inclusion of the Darwin Ichthys Central Processing Facility as "construction", though there was no net GDP impact given it was imported.

The Prelude FLNG platform arrived in Australian waters in July while the Ichthys' Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) facility arrived in August.

We expect therefore to see that Q3's estimate was similarly bloated with a headline rise of 14%.

We will be paying close attention to the LNG-unrelated residential and non-residential building and public sector engineering work done segments that we expect to have supported growth and represent still strong domestic construction patterns. Anecdotally, with a very long period of dry weather in Queensland and NSW, there were minimal interruptions during Q3.”