The Construction Costs Index in the A.C of the Basque Country registered an increase of 0.4% in April of 2008 with respect to the previous month, as a consequence of which the inter-annual rate for that month reached 7.1%, according to Eustat data.

Inter-annual variation rates 1997-2008

(*) The increase specified is the carryover correnponding to April

Source: EUSTAT

In April 2008 labour costs did not change (0.0%) whereas costs of raw materials rose by 0.5%.

The Building and Civil Works sub-sectors showed different trends. Building rose 0.4% over the previous month and the cost of raw material for Civil Works rose 0.9%. It can be observed that the inter-annual evolution of both sub-sectors follow different trajectories: the cost of raw material for Building has risen 7.2% whereas the cost of raw material for Civil Works has gone up 7.7%.

In April the highest increases in prices were observed in raw materials for Metallurgy (2.5%) and Oil By-Products (2.4%). Conversely, the price dropped for Electronic Material (-1.5%) and Electricity and Gas (-1.4%).

Amongst the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector with the highest inflation rates over the last twelve months are: Non-Metallic Minerals (16.4%), Electricity and Gas (12.2%), Water (11.4%) and Oil By-Product (9.0%). On the other hand there were less dramatic price increases in inter-annual prices (April 2008 compared with April 2007) of raw materials for Metallurgy (0.3%), Machinery (2.0%) and Timber Industry (2.1%).

Building Costs Index - Autonomous Community of the Basque Country / Data Development. April 2008

Source: EUSTAT