News

The Construction Costs Index of the Basque Country fell by 0.3% in July 2010 with respect to the previous month, which meant that the year-on-year rate for that month increased by 1.8%, according to EUSTAT data.

In July 2010, labour costs remained unchanged (0.0%), whereas raw material costs decreased by 0.4%.

In July, the cost of raw materials in the Building and Civil Works sub-sectors registered a downturn, with 0.2% and 0.8% decreases in the costs of raw materials used by the Building and Civil Works sectors, respectively. There were differences in the performances of both sub-sectors during the year: building raw material costs rose by 1.3%, whereas those for Civil Works accumulated a 4.4% increase.

Oil By-products (19.9%) stood out among the prices of raw materials consumed by the sector that had experienced the highest inflation rates over the last twelve months. Other sectors that registered price increases were Metallurgy (13.6%), Electricity and Gas (5.4%) and Electrical Equipment (3.2%), among others. On the other hand, the annual prices (July 2010 compared to July 2009) of raw materials decreased in the following sectors: Timber Industry (-1.1%), Metallic Articles (-0.4%), Non-metallic Minerals (-0.3%) and Furniture Production (-0.1%).