Year-on-Year

The year-on-year growth of the Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) was pegged at 1.7 percent in December 2017. It was the same rate recorded in the previous month while in December 2016, the annual growth was posted at 1.8 percent. Higher annual increments were registered in the indices of plumbing materials at 0.6 percent and miscellaneous construction materials, 9.4 percent. Meanwhile, slower annual gains were noted in the indices of carpentry materials at 0.7 percent; masonry materials, 2.6 percent; and tinsmithry materials, 0.8 percent. Annual movement in electrical materials index remained at 1.1 percent and painting materials and related compounds index, 1.2 percent.

Annual average growth of the CMRPI for all items for the year 2017 was higher at 1.5 percent from 1.3 percent in 2016. Higher annual average mark-ups in 2017 were noticed in the indices of electrical materials at 1.3 percent; masonry materials, 2.3 percent; plumbing materials, 1.7 percent; tinsmithry materials, 0.9 percent; and miscellaneous construction materials, 6.6 percent. On the other hand, lower annual average gains were seen in the indices of carpentry materials at 0.4 percent and painting materials and related compounds, 1.1 percent (see Table 2).

Month-on-Month

The month-on-month increase of the CMRPI in NCR decelerated to 0.1 percent in December 2017. The growth in the previous month was registered at 0.4 percent. The slowdown can be attributed to the 0.1 percent decrease still noted in painting materials and related compounds index. In addition, the indices of carpentry materials and tinsmithry materials both recorded a slower rate of increment at 0.1 percent. The index of plumbing materials moved at its previous month’s rate of 0.1 percent while those for the indices of electrical materials and masonry materials exhibited zero growth during the month (see Table 3).

Prices of paints went down in December. Higher prices were however, observed in common wire and finishing nails, G.I. pipes, G.I. sheet and steel bars.