Production in the construction sector and construction costs

The production in construction index provides monthly statistics on output in the sector, referring not only to all new work, but also to repair and maintenance data. The production in construction index is calculated on the base 2010=100.

The construction costs index measures changes in the costs of inputs to the construction process by monitoring separately the cost of each factor. This is a chain-linked index which uses December 2016 as a base for calculations and 2010 as a reference year.

Construction output increased by 0.7% in the three-months to December 2017 and it also grew 2.1% month-on-month in December 2017 and 2.8% year-over-year after adjustment for calendar effect differences. Annual estimates of output in the construction industry (referring to calendar adjusted series) were up 0.3% when comparing to the annual estimates of 2016.

In December 2017, despite falling in all month-on-month time series, cost index in construction grew in all year-over-year series. In fact while both residential building and road engineering work without tunnel section were down 0.2% m-o-m and road engineering work with tunnel section was down 0.1% m-o-m, they respectively increased by 0.6%, 1.5% and 1.1% y-o-y.

For the whole of 2017 cost index in construction industry rose in all sectors: residential building was up 0.6%, road engineering work with tunnel section was up 0.8% and road engineering work without tunnel section was up 1.1%.