Cyprus construction prices down in April

Construction materials prices in Cyprus have been falling as metallic and electromechanical product prices decrease.
In April the price index of construction materials reached 116.52 units (base year 2005=100), recording a decrease of 0.61% over the previous month.
For the period January – April 2009, overall construction materials prices fell by 0.13% over the corresponding period of the previous year.
Within this total figure, the biggest fall was recorded by metallic products, down by 7.6%, while the biggest rise was recorded by minerals, up by 4.0%.

New classification

As of March 23, 2009, the price index of construction materials has adopted a revised classification of materials, a new sample of enterprises and a new base year.
The classification of materials has been updated to reflect the use of modern materials while materials of minor use have been removed.
The weight of each material over the overall index comes from the sum of its imports and local production.
The new classification required a new sample of enterprises, selected in order to ensure that the prices were representative.
The base year was changed from 2000 to 2005 and the general index has been re-calculated according to the new base year, from January 2005 to December 2008.
The apparent changes between the monthly indices of the 2000 based and the 2005 based price index of construction materials are due to the changes in the classification, the sample, the weights and, of course, the base year.