Retail and wholesale construction material prices in Metro Manila continued to increase in May, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on the Construction Materials Retail Price Index, the PSA said retail prices of construction materials increased by 2.6 percent in May, higher than the 1 percent increase in May last year. This brought year-to-date CMRPI growth to 2.3 percent.
PSA data from the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI) also showed wholesale prices grew 8 percent in May, higher than the 2.4 percent posted in May last year. Wholesale prices grew 6.8 percent in the January-to-May period.
Retail prices of construction materials increased on the back of more expensive carpentry materials, prices of which grew 3.8 percent.
However, the increase in prices in a number of commodity groups was balanced by slower increases in the prices of tinsmithry materials. Some commodity groups also remained at the previous month’s level, such as electrical and plumbing materials.
This helped maintain the growth of the CMRPI at the same growth rate as in April at 2.6 percent.
In fact, the PSA said the month- on-month growth of construction prices slowed to 0.1 percent in May 2018. In April the monthly growth rate was at 0.3 percent.
“Upward adjustments were observed in plywood, lawanit, common wire nails, electrical wires, PVC pipes, hollow blocks, paints, corrugated galvanized iron (GI) sheets and steel bars. Meanwhile, cement was priced lower during the month,” the PSA said.
Wholesale prices, meanwhile, grew because of higher costs of fuels and lubricants. Prices of this commodity increased by 29.9 percent in May.
The growth in prices of fuels and lubricants could not be offset by slower growth in the prices of sand and gravel, as well as GI sheets.
However, the month-on-month growth of wholesale construction prices slowed to 0.4 percent in May, as against the 0.9-percent growth posted in April.
Price increases were, likewise, noted in commodities like GI sheets, reinforcing steel and electrical works. Apart from fuels and lubricants, which posted a monthly growth of 2.7 percent, other commodity groups posted zero growth.
“Upward adjustments were observed in the prices of petroleum products, cement, steel bars and selected electrical materials. On the other hand, prices of GI sheets were generally lower this month,” the PSA said.
The CMRPI is a variant of the General Retail Price Index that measures the changes in the average retail prices of construction materials.
The CMWPI is a variant of the General Wholesale Price Index that measures the changes in the average wholesale prices of construction materials.
The CMWPI is used to compute price changes in construction material prices for various government projects.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes