Construction Materials Prices Rise Only .1% in December
Construction materials prices expanded just 0.1% in December and are up 1.3% year over year, according to a Jan. 15 Producer Price Index released by the Dept. of Labor. Nonresidential construction materials prices also rose only 0.1% for the month and are 1% higher than the same time one year ago.
“Materials prices continue to be unusually well behaved, neither rising nor falling aggressively on a month-to-month basis,” said Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “That said, there was some volatility in individual input segments, including natural gas prices, which were up 7.8%, and crude petroleum, which was up 7.1%,” he said.