The Building Costs Index in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country did not experience any variation (0.0%) in August 2007 with respect to the previous month, as a consequence of which the interannual rate for that month reaches 5.0%, according to data facilitated by EUSTAT, the Basque Statistics Office.

The Building subsector remained stable (0.0% increase) whereas that of Civil Works grew 0.1% in August and the interannual rate therefore reached 5.1% for the Building and 4.6% for the Civil Works subsectors, respectively.

Annual carryover rates, 1997-2007

(*) The stated increase is the August annual carryover rate

Source: EUSTAT

In the month of August 2007 labour costs experimented no change at all (0.0%), and raw material did not register any variation (0.0%) either.

The Building and Civil Works subsectors registered a similar evolution, since there was no change with respect to the previous month in the costs of raw materials for Building (0.0%) whereas there was a slight (0,1%) increase in Civil Works, the relative weight of which is smaller than that of the Building subsector. In the interannual evolution of both subsectors it has been observed that both follow similar trajectories albeit with different intensities: raw material costs for Building grow 5.8%, whereas those of raw materials for Civil Works have registered a 5.3 % increase.

In the month of August the highest increases in prices were observed in raw materials derived from electric power (4.0%) glass (2.3%), extracted arid substances (0.6%), artificial cement (0.5%) and metal piping (0.5%) among others. On the other hand, there has been a decrease in prices of the following raw materials: petroleum derivates (-1.9%), asphalt products (-1.5%), lime, gypsum and plaster (-1.4%), explosives and gases (-1.1%) and iron and steel (-0.5%), among others.

Amongst the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that have experienced the highest inflation rates throughout the last twelve months are: glass (24.6%), metal piping (17.5%), iron and steel (14.6%) and artificial cement (6.7%). On the other hand, decreases have been observed in interannual prices (August 2007 compared with August 2006) mainly in asphalt products (-10.5%) petroleum derivates (-4.0%), and structures and metal forming (-0.9%).

Building Costs Index - Autonomous Community of the Basque Country / Data Development. August 2007

Source: EUSTAT