Year-on-Year

The annual growth of the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) decelerated to 2.4 percent in May 2017. It went up by 3.5 percent in April 2017 and 1.0 percent in May 2016. Negative annual rates were noted in the indices of the following commodity groups:

• Electrical Works (-0.3%)

• PVC Pipes (-0.3%)

• Cement (-0.7%)

• Plywood (-0.4%)

Moreover, slower annual increments were observed in the indices of the following commodity groups:

• Concrete Products (1.3%)

• Hardware (1.0%)

• Reinforcing Steel (2.4%)

• Structural Steel (1.1%)

• Fuels and Lubricants (10.3%)

On the other hand, a higher annual rate of 2.6 percent was seen in sand and gravel index. Other commodity groups either retained their previous month’s rate or had zero growth during the month. (Table 2)

 

Month-on-Month

The CMWPI in NCR posted zero growth in May 2017 due to offsetting price movements observed among the commodity groups. It picked up by 0.2 percent in the previous month. The index of sand and gravel however, moved up but at a slower rate of 0.2 percent. In addition, the indices of cement went down by 0.5 percent; plywood, -0.2 percent; and fuels and lubricants, -0.7 percent. The rest of the commodity groups either retained their previous month’s rate or had zero growth. (Table 3)

Prices of gravel and steel bars were higher during the month. On the contrary, downward adjustments were observed in the prices of gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, cement and fiber cement board.