Construction Costs in the A.C. of the Basque Country registered a 0.4% decrease in December 2005 with regard to the previous month of November, according to EUSTAT data. The rate for the whole of 2005 was a 3.5% rise with regard to the month of December 2004.

Over the annual period (December 2005 on December 2004) labour costs increased by 4.6%, while raw material costs registered a 3.1% increase.

In December, the subsectors Building and Civil Works had a similar performance to of raw material costs, with a 0.6% decrease in relation to the previous month for Building, and a 0.4% drop in the cost of raw materials for Civil Works with regard to the month before. The annual evolution of these two subsectors shows similar trends for both: raw material costs for Building grew by 3.0%, while Civil Works accumulated a 3.3% increase.

Among the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that experienced the highest inflation in relation to December the year before are: Asphalt products (35.4%), Oil by-products (31.0%), Worked stone (6.2%) and Manual Tools (6.2%). On the other hand, there were falls in annual prices (December 2005 on December 2004), for raw materials used in Metal Piping (-5.9%), Metal structures and boiler making (-0.8%), Office material (-0.7%) and Lime, gypsum and plaster (-0. 2%).