The General Index of Construction Costs in the A.C. of the Basque Country fell 0.9% in May 2002, according to Eustat data. The inter-annual variation, May 2002 on May 2001, shows the increase in costs to be 1.0% and the rate for the first five months of the year on the past month of December shows a 1.6% increase.
The fall in the cost of raw materials (-1.6%) marked the trend for the general index in the month of May, as the other component, labour costs, did not vary at all in this monthly period. However, in the inter-annual period, labour costs registered a 4.0% increase compared with a 1.1% fall in raw materials.
The subsectors "Building" and "Civil Works" developed differently to one another in May: raw material costs fell 1.8% for the former and 0.9% for the latter. These differences are also produced in the inter-annual evolution, as raw material costs for both these subsectors reached in May, on the same month the previous year, a rate of –1.3% in "Building" and –0.3% in "Civil Works".
Among the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that fell most in the month of May 2002 are: "Glass" (-2.7%), "Explosives and gases" (-1.7%) and "Oil by-products" (-1.6%), amongst others.
The inter-annual evolution of prices shows the most significant increases in costs among the following products: "Paint and varnish" (6.0%), "Artificial cement" (5.0%), "Work clothing" (4.7%), " Machinery Accessories " (4.6%) and "Other metal articles" (4.3%), among others.