The Building Costs index in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country went down by 0.2% in November 2007 with respect to the previous month, as a consequence of which the interannual rate for that month reaches 3.6%, according to data facilitated by EUSTAT, the Basque Statistics Office

The Building subsector went down by 0.3% whereas that of Civil Works grew 0.2% in November. The interannual rate thus reached 3.4% in the Building subsector and 4.4% in Civil Works.

Interanual variation rates 1997-2007

(*) The increase provided is that corresponding to the November interannual rate

Source: EUSTAT

In the month of November 2007 labour costs experimented no change at all (0,0%), and raw material costs registered an 0.3% decrease.

The Building and Civil Works subsectors registered a different evolution, as there were also decreases with respect to the previous month in the costs of raw materials for Building (-0.4%) but also an 0.4% growth in Civil Works costs, 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 follow different trajectories: raw material costs for Building grow 3.3%, whereas those of raw materials for Civil Works have registered a 4.9 % increase.

In the month of November the highest increases in prices were observed in raw materials derived from petroleum derivates (8.4%), asphalt products (6.0%), lime, gypsum and plaster (3.0%), and glass (1.5%) among others. On the other hand, there has been a decrease in prices of the following raw materials: iron and steel (-3.8%), extracted arid substances (-0.4%), metal piping (-0.4%) and metal structures (-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: petroleum derivates (25.8%), glass (19.0%), asphalt products (14.6%) metal piping (9.9%) iron and steel (7.3%), and lime, gypsum and plaster (8.5%). On the other hand, decreases or smaller increases have been observed in interannual prices (November 2007 compared with November 2006) in electric power (-2.1%) metal structures (-1.5%), iron and steel (-1.0%) and ceramic products (0.0%).

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

Source: EUSTAT