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 contracted by 0.9% month-on-month in September 2017 and grew 1.2% in the three month on three month series. The production in construction index, after calendar adjustment, increased by 2.1% compared with the same month a year earlier.

The average index of the first nine months of 2017 (referring to calendar adjusted series) was down 0.1% when comparing to the same period of 2016.

The month-on-month change shows there was no growth in residential building costs, while was up 0.2% in road engineering work with tunnel section and 0.3% in road engineering work without tunnel section.

Year-over-year growth was seen across all construction costs indices in September 2017, increasing by 0.6% in residential building, 1.0% in road engineering work with tunnel section and 1.5% in road engineering work without tunnel section.

The year-over-year rise in all construction costs indices stemmed from growth in construction materials, which grew 1.8% in residential building (0.0% m-o-m), 3.2% in road engineering work with tunnel section (0.5% m-o-m) and 4.5% in road engineering work without tunnel section (0.7% m-o-m).