The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed on Wednesday that overall construction work completed in the second quarter of 2010 soared to a record high $41.7 billion as residential building activities surged during the past three months leading to end of June.

Latest date furnished by ABS showed that total construction works wrapped up during the June quarter jumped by a seasonally adjusted 3.5 percent and bested by almost two-fold the upward movement observed in the first quarter of the year.

Initially, economic forecasters had predicted that construction growth would only register a 3.0 percent climb in the June quarter so the much improved performance came as a welcome surprise for many economists.

ABS said that the impressive figures would be integrated into the June quarter national accounts set to be made public by Wednesday next week.

The statistics office added that most crucial components of gross domestic product have indicated encouraging boosts for consumer spending as the agency projected that sustained good results from the country's export sector should fuel further economic growth.

ABS said that all construction segments fared very well in the June quarter as overall building activities shot up by 5.3 percent to $21.4 billion during the period while residential construction gained traction by as much as 7.7 percent to $11.7 billion.

Furthermore, non-residential construction activities increased by 2.6 percent with the country's engineering works following suit by registering growth of 1.5 percent.