Press Releases

Annual Change +2,7%

The Output Prices Index in Construction for the fourth quarter of 2023 reached 138,29 units (base year 2015=100,00), recording a marginal increase of 0,8% over the third quarter of 2023. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, the index increased by 2,7%.

By type of project, an increase of 1,4% was observed for buildings and of 6,9% for civil engineering projects in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2022.

For the period January – December 2023, the overall index registered an increase of 4,8% over the corresponding period of 2022. An increase of 1,6% was recorded in the index for buildings and of 16,6% in the index for civil engineering projects.

Methodological Information

Scope

The quarterly Output Prices Index measures the changes in unit prices charged to clients of construction work. Consequently, it shows the change in the overall cost of construction work incurred to the client, including costs coming from the materials used, from labour, energy, transport, etc. as well as the profit made by the contractors. It can be seen as an indication of inflation’s level in Construction compared to a specific reference year, the base year.

Collection of Data

Every quarter, unit prices are collected for a list of basic construction tasks necessary from the foundation to the completion of projects such as houses, apartments, non-residential buildings and civil engineering projects (i.e. projects of open spaces and, generally speaking, everything that cannot be classified as a building). Data are collected from a sample of enterprises involved in the different construction stages of the projects under study, using all possible means (phone call, fax or e-mail) according to the contact person’s preference.

Compilation Method

The tasks that are priced are grouped accordingly by type of project. Aggregation of the tasks uses weights that reflect the cost of each task within each construction project. At the final level of aggregation, for the total output prices index, the weight used is the turnover of each type of construction project in relation to the total. The indices that come out for the different types of construction projects are also used as deflators for the calculation of the Production Index in Construction.

The base year for the index is 2015. This means that the index shows the changes in unit prices in relation to their average values in the year 2015. In the base year, the average of the output prices index for the four quarters is set to 100,0. For example, an index of 101,5 implies that prices have gone up by 1,5% in relation to the average prices of 2015.

For more information, visit the CYSTAT Portal, subtheme Construction, CYSTAT-DB (Online Database), Predefined Tables (Excel) or contact Ms Evi Kalogirou Demetriou (tel.: 22602168, e-mail: ekalogirou@cystat.mof.gov.cy).

The Predefined Tables, available in Excel format, include data up to the fourth quarter of 2022. Data from the first quarter of 2023 onwards are available only in the CYSTAT-DB Online Database.

(GS/IA)