This is the Australian Industry Group Performance of Construction Index for July

  • Rises on the month to 60.5, from 56 in June
  • 6th consecutive month in 'expansion'
  • At 60.5 its at its highest since 2005
  • Now at its highest ever recorded

New orders up 2.8 points to a cracking 64.6, the highest for this indicator since 2005

  • Employment up 4.8 points on the month to 59.0 to its highest since 2014
  • Activity surged 5.2 points, to 58.3

Some signs of inflationary pressures too:

  • Input prices up 7.4 points to 73.6
  • Selling prices up 6.7 points to 59.1

OK, over the AiG for their 'key findings' (in summary, bolding mine):

Strongest pace of overall industry growth since the survey's inception in September 2005

Expanding activity across all four major construction sectors

  • rate of expansion in commercial construction lifted to its highest level in 12 years amid an increase in the number of projects entering the work pipeline
  • House building recorded its fastest pace of growth in 3½ years on the back of a solid backlog of work and ongoing strength in demand
  • More robust conditions were also evident in engineering construction activity in July, with the sector's sub-index rising solidly in line with reports of increased levels of non-mining infrastructure work
  • In addition, the apartment building sector returned to modest growth after contracting in June, supported by a fourth consecutive month of expansion in new orders

More:

Across the construction industry growth in new orders and activity accelerated in July to rates that were among the strongest in the survey's 12-year history

  • This led to solid expansions in deliveries from suppliers and employment

Survey respondents generally attributed this month's pick-up to an improvement in demand conditions citing a lift in new orders and an increase in tendering opportunities

  • House builders reported a high degree of support from on-going projects while some businesses indicated that stamp duty reductions (which came into effect in NSW and Victoria from 1 July) had led to an increase in first home buyer activity.

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Pulling out just a couple of (major) points from the report ...

  1. increased levels of non-mining infrastructure work
  2. increased levels of non-mining infrastructure work

The first one there is referring (not exclusively, but significantly) to government-funded infrastructure. The second to a (in effect) reduction in tax on home building.

Intervention from Australian governments to support building and construction is nothing new, and it will continue. Its something to be aware of when you see pundits spewing doom and gloom, they often ignore government efforts that will swing in to support. Its not always enough to avoid an economic slowdown, but it something to keep front-of-mind when reading opinions.

Whether this is government support a good thing or not / fits your ideology or not is open to debate of course. But debate/ideology should not be confused with understanding what actually happens.

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OK, so how is the AUD responding?

It often doesn't to these PMIs, today is no different, not too much going on at all in FX-land:

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Earlier in the month we had the manufacturing PMi and services PMi from AiG:

The construction PMI is the third of their 3 monthly PMIs.

Also from Australia earlier this month two new PMIa, from the Commonwealth Bank research team: