The General Index of Construction Costs in the A.C. of the Basque Country grew 0.3% in April 2002, according to Eustat data. The inter-annual variation, April 2002 on April 2001, sets the increase in costs at 1.7% and the rate for the first four months of the year has accelerated in comparison with last December, with a 2.5% rise.
The increase in raw material costs (0.4%) has marked the trend in the general index for the month of April, 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 3.5% increase compared with a 0.5% rise in raw material prices.
The subsectors "Building" and "Civil Works" performed differently in the month of April; raw material costs rose 0.4% for the former and 0.7% for the latter. These differences continue to occur in the inter-annual performance, as raw material costs for these two subsectors reached a rate of 0.4% in April on the same month the previous year for Building and 0.8% for "Civil Works".
Among prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that increased most in the month of April 2002 are: "Oil by products" (4.1%), "Plastic piping. Thermal insulators" (2.0%), "Explosives and gases" (1.7%) and "Metal piping" (1.6%), among others.
The inter-annual evolution of prices shows the most significant
rises among the costs of the following products: "Paint and varnish" (6.4%),
"Artificial cement" (5.5%), "Work clothing" (4.7%), "Accessories for machinery"
(4.2%) and "Manual tools" (3.4%), among others.