Summary
In January 2005 the new housing construction cost index on the mainland had a change of 3.7% from the same month of 2004, which represents a 0.7 percentage point (p.p.) deceleration of costs from December. This development of the index was due to the strong deceleration of 1.9 p.p. in the material component, with the corresponding year-on-year change moving to 4.4%. The labour component in new housing construction costs accelerated from 2.9% to 3.1%. The year-on-year rate of change in the housing regular repair and maintenance price index on the mainland was 3.4%, similar to that observed in the previous month. The services component had a year-on-year rate of change of 4.2%, similar to that in the previous period, while products for housing regular maintenance and repair declined by 0.2 p.p. from the previous period, to stand at 2.1%.