National Institute for Statistics (Istat)

Directorate for Business Statistics (DCSE) Division for Statistics on Production and Foreign Trade

Via Tuscolana, 1788; 00173 Rome, Italy

Indici dei costi di costruzione di un fabbricato residenziale - Construction cost index for residential buildings.

The type of index measures the variation over time of the prices of the factors employed in the activity of construction. These factors are: materials costs, wages and salaries, plant and equipment hire, transport.

Construction Classification: costs are grouped by four components: wages, materials, hire charges, transport charges. The indices are published according to the construction breakdowns at the group levels but not at the category nor product level. The classification is a non-standard one.

NACE Rev. 2 Division 41.

The index is broken down into four groups of costs: i) Labour costs: wages and salaries ii) Materials costs; iii) Hire charges; iv) Transport charges. The groups contain several categories that are different in name and number.
1. Labour costs
The hourly labour costs are recorded. They are different for each category of workers. They are made up of contractual minimum initial payments, of all the additional allowances and of the social charges taken from the national contract for workers in the industry, complemented by any provincial contracts. Labour costs are recorded by Istat.

2. Materials costs
Material costs are actually factor prices and refer to average monthly prices for goods delivered "free to site", excluding VAT. They are recorded by the Survey on Producer prices on the domestic market. 

3. Hire costs
Hire charges refer the machines which, in the overall hire charges, have a significant weight (excavators, concrete-mixers, bulldozers and cranes). They are considered on a “hot” basis, i.e. with the machine working therefore including fuel and/or electricity consumption and the hourly cost of the operator

4. Transport costs
The transport costs are considered on a “hot” basis, i.e. with the truck working therefore including fuel consumption and the hourly cost of the driver

Reporting unit: Industrial Enterprises (survey on output prices on the domestic market) and Regional Civil Engineering Offices.

Observation unit(s): Labour, Hire and transport costs; Materials prices.

200 production enterprises.

Whole national territory.

Indices on residential building are available since 1967.

The base period is December 2015 .

Reference year is 2010.

Indices.

Month.

Legal basis:

1) National level: this is one of the compulsory surveys fixed every year by a Decree of the President of the Republic (D.P.R.).

2) European level: Council Regulation No 1165/1998 concerning short-term statistics, amended by the Regulation No 1158/2005.

Obligation on units to provide data: Surveys are mandatory. Penalties are foreseen for non-response.

Planned changes in legal basis, obligation to respond and frame used: None.

Eurostat and OECD.

Confidentiality provisions are explicitly stated in the Istat President’s letter attached to data collection questionnaire along with references to different legal acts on statistics.

 Links to relevant legal acts on statistics are also listed on the website of Sistan - National Statistical System - (http://www.sistan.it/index.php?id=203).

Cost series are not published. Costs indexes are disseminated for groups of costs.

Every year, in December Istat publishes a release calendar providing the precise release dates for the coming year. The calendar is distributed to the press and is available free of charge to interested parties. The calendar is also disseminated on Istat's website. 

Press release calendar: http://www.istat.it/en/information/journalists/press-calendar

Since April 2016 (January 2016 data) Construction cost indices for residential buildings and for road sections press release has been merged with production in construction (IPC).

Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by issuing the press release “Produzione nelle costruzioni e costi di costruzione”. The release (both in Italian and English version “Production in the construction sector and construction costs”) is subsequently posted on the Istat website (http://www.istat.it/en/). No pre-release access. 

Monthly.

Data are disseminated since April 2006 through a new monthly press release “Produzione nelle costruzioni e costi di costruzione”. The release (both in Italian and English version “Production in the construction sector and construction costs”) is posted on the Istat website. Archive of press release is accessible at http://www.istat.it/en/archive/construction+costs

Indices are also published in the Statistical Yearbook (http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/171864)

Data are disseminated in I.Stat http://dati.istat.it/?lang=en, theme Prices, sub-theme Production prices, dataset Construction costs index - monthly data

The on-line database I.Stat  is open and free, statistics are organised by theme in a two-level hierarchical tree. Data are presented in aggregate form in multidimensional tables; acting on variables, reference periods and the arrangement of heads and sides users can create custom tables and graphs. The system can be searched by keyword, theme and region.
A wide range of standard metadata facilitates the retrieval and understanding of statistics by users.

More information available in the User Guide:

http://dati.istat.it/ModalHelp/Istat/WBOS%20User%20Guide%20%28EN%29.PDF

Not available.

Data are also transmitted to Eurostat via Edamis.

A short description of the methodology and characteristics of the survey is contained in the technical explanatory note included in the release and updated regularly.
Generally, major changes in methodology are announced a short period in advance in the publication Note Informative (last updating of the base year and other recent modifications to the methodology have been announced on 21^st March 2013 edition of Note Informative).
http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/85727

A description of methodology and sources used in preparing statistics is also contained in the Information System for Survey Documentation and Quality Control (Siqual); it is available on Istat’s website http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/welcome.do. This system manages qualitative information related to each single phase of a survey’s production process (http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/visualizza.do?id=7777813&refresh=true&language=EN).

CCI benefits data already after quality checks performed in the labour cost and producer price surveys. This is the reason why “quality” assessments refer the data sources only in their own context.

Timeliness, coverage and relevance are in line with the other STS indicators compiled by Istat but this survey has not been submitted to a specific audit on quality yet.

CCI are relevant both for Italian and Eurostat users.

Not available.

Eurostat’s requirements in term of time series are fulfilled. Furthermore, CCI actually meets the Italian users needs of information.

Accuracy is measured in terms of distance between provisional and final data.

Construction cost indices are derived from Labour and Producer prices surveys data. Hire and Transport costs are administrative data. No sampling error are compiled. 

Producer price and Labour surveys provide quality checked data for Construction cost indices. 

 Publication is released 45-50 days after the end of the reference period, exceptionally January 2016 data were released after 80 days due to a renewed press released.

All releases delivered according to the timetable.

The CCIs are compiled at national level using European definitions.

Istat calculates CCI since 1967. Time series breaks are the following:

[1967-1970; base 1966]; [1971-1976; base 1970]; [1977-1980; base 1976]; [1981-1990; base 1980]; [1991-1995; base 1990]; [1996-2001; base 1995]; [2002-2008; base 2000]; [2009-2012; base 2005];[2013- ; base 2010]

Coherence is insured for Labour costs since data are derived by the Istat survey on Labour cost index; Material costs are derived by the Istat survey on PPI on domestic market; while Hire and Transport costs are mainly collected by price lists received by the Regional Civil Engineering and C Offices and Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Crafts and Agriculture.

The total CCI is a weighted mean (Laspeyres type index) of groups of costs indexes: labour, materials, hires and transports. Internal coherence is straightforward.

The cost estimate is compiled in terms of total number of hours worked (THW). It is equal to the product of three terms: (total) Annual Working Days (AWD), (total) Hours Worked per Day (HWD), Number of Persons involved in the Survey (NPS).

No burden for respondents (reporting units) because Construction Costs Indices are compiled without external data collection.

On a monthly basis, provisional and final indexes are disseminated. Data concerning the current month are provisional while those applied to the previous months are final. No other revision is calculated.

Generally, major changes in methodology, sources and statistical techniques are announced through ad hoc publications.
Advance notification of methodological changes is also provided through seminars and papers disseminated throughout the scientific community. 

Differences between provisional and final data are due to coverage achieved in data sources (Labour and Producer price surveys).

Type of source: Different types of a sources are used. Labour and Material costs are respectively recorded by Istat surveys on Wages and Producer prices. Hire and Transport charges derive from administrative source : Regional Civil Engineering Offices and Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Crafts and Agriculture. 

Frame on which the source is based: None.

Sample or census: None

Criteria for stratification: Not applicable.

Threshold values and percentages: Not available.

Frequency of updating the sample: The sample is updated every year.

Construction costs indices for residential buildings and Construction cost indices for roads are compiled monthly.

Questionnaires used in the survey: None

Planned changes in national questionnaires: None

Data collection media: None.

Planned changes in data collection methodology: None. 

Before computing the index, data are quality-checked by observing both levels and rates of change. 

The elementary national indices of each cost item are obtained by relating the cost observed during the month in question to the average monthly cost recorded in the base year 2015 and then these elementary indices are aggregated in groups of costs indices using the Laspeyres formula. Indices are then transformed in base 2010=100 by data chaining.

Seasonally adjusted indices are not calculated.

None.