The General Index of Construction Costs in the A.C. of the Basque Country rose 0.2% in December 2002, according to Eustat data. The inter-annual variation, December 2002 in relation to December 2001, increased 2.9%, point six percent hiigher than the increase registered the previous year (2.3%).
In December raw material costs registered a 0.3% increase, while labour costs remained stable. However, in the inter-annual period, labour costs registered a 4.0% increase compared with a 2.1% increase in raw materials.
Raw materials for the subsectors "Building" and "Civil Works" continued a similar trend in December, with increases in both subsectors, although to different degrees: raw material costs for "Building" rose 0.2% and "Civil Works" went up 0.6%. However, there were more notable differences on analysing the inter-annual evolution, with a growth rate of 1.7% in relation to December 2001 for "Building" and 3.2% for "Civil Works".
Among the prices of raw materials used by the sector that increased
most in December 2002 are: "Oil by-products" (5.2%), "Electric energy"
(3.7%), "Lime, gypsum and plaster" (1.6%) and "Glass" (1.4%). Bearing in
mind the inter-annual development in prices, "Oil by-products" (13.7%), "Metal
piping" (7.8%), "Artificial cement" (7.0%), and "Accessories to used machines"
(4.3%) registered the most significant increases.