Construction index costs in the A.C. of the Basque Country registered a 0.5% increase in December 2006 with regard to November, according to EUSTAT data. The rate for the whole of 2006 was a on 6.2% increase, on December 2005.

Changes in the inter-annual rate, 1997-2006

Source: EUSTAT

Over the annual period (December 2006 on December 2005) labour costs increased by 5.3%, while raw material costs increased by 6.6%.

In December the subsectors Building and Civil Works a quite similar evolution in raw materials, with 0.7% growth in relation to the previous month for Building, while raw material costs for Civil Works increased by 0.6%. The annual evolution of these two subsectors shows that they grew with differing intensities: raw material costs for Building grew by 6.9%, while raw materials for Civil Works accumulated a 5.4% increase.

Among the prices of the most relevant raw materials consumed by the sector that have risen most in price over 2006 are: Electric energy (24.8%), Iron and steel (22.0%), Metal piping (17.3%) and Glass (12.8%). By contrast, there were reductions in annual prices (December 2006 on December 2005) of the raw materials for Oil by-products (-4.8%), Asphalt products (-2.8%) and Ceramic products (-0.1%).

Construction costs index A.C. of Euskadi / Data summary. December 2006

Source: EUSTAT