The Construction Costs Index in the A.C. of the Basque Country rose by 0.7% in October 2005 with regard to the previous month, putting the inter-annual rate for this month at 3.9%, according to EUSTAT data.

Labour costs in October 2005 were unchanged (0.0%), while costs of raw materials registered a 1.0% increase.

The evolution of raw material costs in the sub-sectors of Building and Civil Works differed slightly: the index for Building increased by 1.1% with regard to the previous month, whereas in Civil Works there was a 0.6% rise. The overall result was 1.0% due to the greater weight of the Building sub-sector compared to that of Civil Works. Inter-annual evolution for both of these sub-sectors showed similar variations: raw material costs for Building rose by 3.6% and those of Civil Works grew by 3.8%.

The highest price rises for October occurred in the cases of raw materials consumed by Asphalt Products (7:2%), Iron and steel (5.0%), Metal piping (3.3%) and Glass (0.8%), among others. Conversely, there was a reduction in the prices of raw materials used in Cleaning and hygiene material (-3.1%), Oil by-products (-2.0%), Electric energy (-0.9%) and Metal structures and boilermaking (-0.1%).

Among the highest rates of inflation for prices of raw materials used by the sector over the twelve-month period as a whole were: Asphalt Products (31.9%), Oil by-products (19.4%), Manual tools (6.3%), Worked stone (6.2%) and Baked Earth (5.9%). On the other hand, reductions in inter-annual prices were registered for raw materials of Cleaning and hygiene material (-1.6%) and Metal structures and boilermaking (-1.1%).