The Building Costs Index in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country remained stable in June 2007 with respect to the previous month, as a consequence of which the interannual rate for that month reaches 5.1%, 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 July. The interannual rate thus reached 5.3% for the Building and 4.4% for the Civil Works subsectors, respectively.

Annual carryover rates, 1997-2007

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

Source: EUSTAT

In the month of July 2007 labour costs experimented no change at all (0,0%), and raw material also remained stable (0.0% increase).

The Building and Civil Works subsectors registered a similar evolution, as there was no change with respect to the previous month in the costs of raw materials for Building. There was, however, 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 6.1%, whereas those of raw materials for Civil Works have registered a 4.9 % increase.

In the month of July the highest increases in prices were observed in raw materials derived from electric power (2.7%) asphalt products (1.0%), petroleum derivates (1.2%), and extracted arid substances (0.6%), among others. On the other hand, there has been a decrease in prices of the following raw materials: lime, gypsum and plaster (-0.5%), iron and steel (-0.4%), explosives and gases (-0.4%) and metal piping (-0.3%), 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 (24.8%), iron and steel (17.0%), metal piping (14.1%) and lime, gypsum and plaster (7.9%). On the other hand, decreases have been observed in interannual prices (July 2007 compared with July 2006) in asphalt products (-9.2%) petroleum derivates (-4.4%), and structures and metal forming (-1.2%).

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

Source: EUSTAT