Construction Costs Index recorded a 0.6% decrease in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country in September 2008 with respect to the previous month, which means that the year-on-year rate for that month stood at 7.3%, according to data facilitated by EUSTAT.

Changes in the year-on-year rate, 1997-2008

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

Source: EUSTAT

In the month of September 2008, labour costs remained unchanged (0.0%), whereas raw material costs decreased by 0.8%.

Raw materials in the Building and Civil Works sub-sectors reacted in a similar way but with different intensities, with a 0.6% decrease compared to the previous month in Building, while raw materials for Civil Works fell by 1.3%. The year-on-year evolution of these two sub-sectors reveal a greater gap between them, as the cost of building raw materials have increased by 6.8%, while Civil Works raw materials have accumulated an increase of 10.7%.

In September, with respect to August, the greatest price increases were seen in raw materials consumed by Electricity and Gas (2.6%), Rubber and Plastic (0.2%), Timber Industry (0.2%) and Machinery (0.2%). On the other hand, Oil By-products (-3.6%), Non-Metallic Industry (-1.7%), Metallurgy D 0-6.%) Metallic Articles D 0-3.%), Non-Metallic Industry (-0.2%) and Furniture Manufacturing (-0.1%) witnessed a fall in their prices.

Amongst the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that have experienced the highest inflation rates over the last twelve months are: Electricity and Gas (29.4%), Oil By-products (28.7%), Metallurgy (12.6%), Water (11.4%) and Non-metallic Minerals (10.0%). On the other hand, smaller increases were registered in the year-on-year prices (September 2008 compared to September 2007) of raw materials for Electronic Material (-2.6%), Non-Metallic Industry (1 4.%) and Timber Industry (2.2%).

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

Source: EUSTAT