The General Index of Construction Costs in the A.C. of Euskadi grew 0.3% in February 2002. The inter-annual variation, February 2002 on February 2001, shows the increase in costs to be 1.6% and the rate for the first two months of the year on last December came to 2.0%, bearing in mind the sharp increase in January (1.6%).
The increase in raw material costs (0.5%) marked the direction of the general index for February, as the other component, labour costs, did not vary at all over this monthly period. However, the inter-annual period registered a 3.5% increase in labour costs compared with 0.3% in raw materials.
The subsectors "Building" and "Civil Works" performed similarly in the month of February: the former increased 0.5% and the latter rose 0.4%. However, the differences are more visible in the inter-annual evolution; the costs of "Civil Works" fell 0.2% and "Building" rose 0.5%, point seven higher.
Among the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that increased most in the month of February 2002 are: "Lime, gypsum and plaster" (5.8%), "Glass" (2.4%), "Explosives and gases" (2.3%), "Oil by-products" (1.6%), "Asphalt products" (1.6%) and "Metal piping" (0.8%), although the relative weight of all these products in the basket of raw materials is quite low.
The inter-annual evolution of prices marked more significant rises among the costs of the different consumed products: "Artificial concrete" (5.3%), "Paint and varnish" (5.1%), "Manual tools" (5.1%), "Glass" (4.4%), "Worked stone" (4.0%), "Baked clay" (2.6%) and "Articles derived from cement" (2.1%).