Year-on-Year

On an annual basis, the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) went up 2.1 percent in November 2016. Last month, it rose by 2.0 percent while in November 2015, it decreased by 0.2 percent. Higher annual increments were registered in the indices of sand and gravel at 3.7 percent; concrete products, 2.3 percent; hardware, 0.8 percent; and reinforcing steel, 7.0 percent. Meanwhile, annual gains were slower in the indices of cement at 3.1 percent; plywood, 0.6 percent; and fuels and lubricants, 2.8 percent. Negative annual rates were still noted in the indices of lumber at -0.6 percent; G.I. sheet, -2.7 percent; structural steel, -3.2 percent; tileworks, -1.0 percent; doors, jambs and steel casement, -1.6 percent; and painting works, -0.4 percent. Other commodity groups either retained their last month’s rates or had a flat growth (Table 2).

Month-on-Month

The month-on-month increase of the CMWPI in NCR decelerated to 0.3 percent in November 2016. Last month, it gained by 0.4 percent. The indices of cement and plywood went down by 0.4 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. In addition, slower increment was noticed in fuels and lubricants index at 0.2 percent. On the other hand, higher rate was registered in reinforcing steel index at 0.4 percent. From a flat growth, indices of sand and gravel rose 0.6 percent; concrete products, 0.5 percent; hardware, 0.4 percent; and tileworks, 0.1 percent. The rest of the commodity groups had a flat growth (Table 3).

Prices of gravel, hollow blocks, nails, welding rod, hinges, steel bars and vinyl tile were on the uptrend. Price hikes were also noted in gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. These were however, tempered by the downward adjustments in the prices of cement and plywood.