Prices of building materials up in March

MANILA, Philippines — Retail prices of construction materials in the capital region slightly went up in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

The Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI) in the National Capital Region moved upward to 1.2 percent from 1.1 percent in February.

It is also much faster than the 0.9 percent recorded in March last year.

The slight uptick was attributed to the resumption of construction activities during the month.

Annual increments were faster in the indices of carpentry materials at 1.5 percent, masonry materials (1.7 percent), painting materials and related compounds (0.8 percent) and miscellaneous construction materials (1.1 percent).

Electrical materials and plumbing materials retained their previous month’s rate both at 0.5 percent.

The CMRPI is a variant of the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) that measures the changes in the average retail prices of construction materials. It uses 2012 as the base year.

It covers 102 building materials classified into seven commodity groups: carpentry materials, electrical materials, masonry materials, painting materials and related compounds, plumbing materials, tinsmithry materials, and miscellaneous construction materials.

CMRPI prices are collected through personal interviews or actual price quotations from selected sample outlets in NCR.

Collection of prices is done during the first to third week of the reference month.