The Construction Costs Index in the A.C. of the Basque Country registered a 0.2% rise in March 2005 with regard to the previous month, by which the inter-annual rate for the month came to 6.3%, according to EUSTAT data.

Labour costs did not vary at all (0.0%) in March 2005, whereas raw material costs increased by 0.3%.

The subsectors of Building and Civil Works registered different results, with 0.2% growth in relation to the previous month for Building, and a 0.7% rise for raw material costs for Civil Works. The inter-annual evolution of these two subsectors shows that both followed identical trends: raw material costs for Building and Civil Works grew by 7.4% in both cases.

In March the highest growth in prices occurred for raw materials consumed by Oil by-products (8.3%), Worked stone (6.2%), Asphalt Products (4.1%), Electric energy (2.9%) and Lime, gypsum and plaster (1.7%), among others. On the other hand, there was a reduction in raw material prices for Cleaning and Hygiene Material de (-1.6%), Explosives and gases (-1.0%), Accessories for used machinery (-0.9%) and Iron and steel (-0.6%), among others.

Among the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that registered higher inflationary rates over the whole of the last twelve months were: Metal piping (33.3%), Iron and steel (27.8%), Asphalt products (24.8%) and Oil by-products (24.1%). In addition, there were reductions in inter-annual prices (March 2005 on March 2004), for raw materials used in Glass (-5.5%), Explosives and gases (-2.4%), Office material (-1.4%), Electric energy (-1.0%) and Timber and cork (-0.1%).

Source: EUSTAT