The Building Costs index in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country went down by 0.3% in October 2007 with respect to the previous month, as a consequence of which the interannual rate for that month reaches 4.0%, according to data facilitated by EUSTAT, the Basque Statistics Office..

The Building subsector went down by 0.4% whereas that of Civil Works decreased 0.1% in October. The interannual rate thus reached 3.9% in the Building subsector and 4.2% in that of Civil Works.

Interanual variation rates 1997-2007

(*) The increase provided is that corresponding to the October interannual rate

Source: EUSTAT

In the month of October 2007 labour costs experimented no change at all (0,0%), and raw material costs registered an 0.5% decrease..

The Building and Civil Works subsectors registered quite a similar evolution, as there were also decreases with respect to the previous month in the costs of raw materials for Building (-0.6%). There was also a slight (-0,2%) decrease in Civil Works, the relative weight of which is smaller than that of the Building subsector. In the interannual evolution of both subsectors it has been observed that both follow similar trajectories: raw material costs for Building grow 4.1%, whereas those of raw materials for Civil Works have registered a 4.6 % increase.

In the month of October the highest increases in prices were observed in raw materials derived from asphalt products (2.0%), petroleum derivates (1.9%), accessories of the machinery used (1.6%) and hardware items (1.6%), among others. On the other hand, there has been a decrease in prices of the following raw materials: iron and steel (-3.1%), lime, gypsum and plaster (-2.3%) and glass (-1.2%), among others.

Amongst the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that have experienced the highest inflation rates throughout the last twelve months are: glass (21.3%), petroleum derivates (15.1%), metal piping (9.0%) iron and steel (7.3%), asphalt products (7.6%) and artificial cement (5.7%). On the other hand, decreases have been observed in interannual prices (October 2007 compared with October 2006) in structures and boiler-related raw materials (-1.5%) ceramic products (0.0%) and electric power (0.1%).

Building Costs Index - Autonomous Community of the Basque Country / Data Development. October 2007

Source: EUSTAT