Year-on-Year

On an annual basis, the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) further moved up to 1.5 percent in July 2016. Last month, it rose 1.3 percent while in July 2015, it declined by 1.0 percent. The uptrend was brought about by higher annual mark-ups posted in the indices of sand and gravel at 3.6 percent and cement, 2.7 percent. Slower annual increases were, however, seen in the indices of concrete products at 2.7 percent; hardware, 1.1 percent; plywood, 1.0 percent; reinforcing steel, 6.5 percent; electrical works, 0.8 percent; and plumbing fixtures and accessories/waterworks, 2.0 percent. Moreover, annual decreases were still registered in the indices of lumber at -0.7 percent; G.I. sheet, -2.7 percent; structural steel, -3.7 percent; tileworks, -1.1 percent; doors, jambs, and steel casement, -1.5 percent; painting works, -0.4 percent, and fuels and lubricants, -3.3 percent. The rest of the commodity groups recorded a flat growth with the index for PVC pipes retaining its previous month’s rate for 0.2 percent (Table 2).

Month-on-Month

The month-on-month change of the wholesale prices of selected construction materials in NCR fell by 0.1 percent in July 2016. Last month, the CMWPI gained by 0.5 percent. The indices of reinforcing steel and fuels and lubricants went down by 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. In addition, slower add-on of 0.1 percent was noticed in plywood index. On the other hand, sand and gravel index rose 0.6 percent from a flat growth recorded last month. The rest of the commodity groups had a zero percent change during the month (Table 3).

Prices of gasoline and diesel were lower during the month. Meanwhile, higher prices were observed in cement, sand and gravel.