Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (CSB).

Macroeconomic Statistics Department, Producer price indices section.

Lāčplēša Street 1, Riga, LV-1301.

Construction cost index for new residential buildings (130201). 

Construction cost index characterizes changes in the main resources invested in construction of new residential buildings during the reporting period in comparison with the base period.

NACE Rev. 2 classification (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community) and CC classification (Classification of Types of Construction) at national level has been used.

Economically active statistical units with the main kind of economic activity belonging to 41.10 to 43.99 (section F), 46.73, 46.74 and 47.52 to 47.54 of Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities NACE Rev. 2.

The list of construction enterprises-respondents is selected by means of purposive sampling, choosing the enterprises with the highest value of own account construction work (NACE Rev. 2 Section F) in the previous year. The sampled construction enterprises differ in specialization and represent various regions of Latvia. The criterion for the sample of trade enterprises is their turnover and specialization.

For the calculation of the labour cost index, information provided by the enterprises included in the construction cost index (CCI) survey is used (NACE Rev. 2 41, 42.21, 42.22 and 43).

Prices of building materials excluding VAT are used. Building enterprises provide purchase prices and trade enterprises provide sale prices of building materials. Maintenance and operational costs of machinery and mechanical appliances are provided as costs per hour for machinery lease. Labour costs are presented by gross wage per hour and per capita.

Prices of building materials and maintenance and operational costs of machinery and mechanical appliances are collected every month.

Observation unit - Kind of activity unit (KAU).

Reporting unit - enterprise.

In 2023 the data on prices of construction resources were provided by approximately 200 construction enterprises and more than 50 trade enterprises.

Entire country.

Comparable data are available since 2006.

Till 2024 nationally all data (since 2006) for Construction cost index for new residential buildings were disseminated with base year 2015 (2015=100), from March 2024 all-time series were recalculated (rescaled) to base year 2021 (2021=100) (see also 18). 

Reference year (the year when the index equals 100): 2021.

Base and reference periods are the same as for national released data and for data transmitted to Eurostat.

Indices.

Quarter.

Statistics Law adopted by Saeima on 4 June 2015, is the legal base of all statistics.

The questionnaire is adopted by the Rules of Cabinet of Minister of the Republic of Latvia No 812 of 20 December 2016.

Rules of Cabinet of Minister of the Republic of Latvia No 741 of 29 November 2022 concerning to Official Statistics Program for the 2023-2025.

The specific legal basis for the STS indicators is the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business.

Followed by the Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistic. 

The former legal basis is the  Council Regulation No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics, amended by the Regulation No 1158/2005 of 6 July 2005 concerning short-term statistics and by the Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2.

The definitions of short-term statistics variables are laid down in Commission Regulation No1503/2006 of 28 September 2006 implementing and amending Council Regulation N° 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics as regards the definition of variables.

Not available. We are sending data only to Eurostat.

Price data provided by respondents is treated as confidential information and protected by Official Statistics Law.

The summary on confidentiality in the production of official statistics is available on the CSB website.

The policy of data protection and dissemination has been described in Quality Policy of the National Statistical System of Latvia ).

 Statistical dissemination policy defines general principles of statistical data dissemination, availability of CSB`s products and services for data users, communication with data users, cooperation with the media, availability of individual data for scientific and educational purposes.

Statistical data shall be considered confidential if they directly or indirectly allow for identification of the private individuals or State authorities regarding which personal statistical data have been provided.  Also the data of individual enterprises or establishment are confidential.

Before the publication date and time calculated price index information is confidential.

Advance Release Calendar for Key Indicators and Statistics Database are available on Official statistics portal. 

Data are published on the date indicated at 13.00.

Release calendar is available on the Official statistics portal. 

Statistical information published by the CSB is simultaneously available for all data users on equal terms.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat on the same day that the data are published in the Official statistics portal, regularly in the 3rd month after the reference quarter.

Quarterly.

 Not applicable.

 Not applicable.

Information on construction cost index for new residential buildings (table RCB060c) is available on the Official statistics portal database under theme Economy and section Producer Prices:

https://stat.gov.lv/en/search?Themes=%222504%22

Consistent time series are available since 2006 with the base year 2021.

Microdata are not disseminated and accessible for researchers.

Information on construction cost index for new residential buildings is available in the homepage of Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT) in section: Database / Industry, trade and services / Short-term business statistics (sts) / Construction (sts_cons) / Construction producer prices or costs, new residential buildings (sts_cons_pri):

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/data/database 

Methodological description is available on the portal under section Reference Metadata. Theme  Economy / Producer prices:  https://stat.gov.lv/en/metadata/2614-construction-cost-index-new-residential-buildings

Management Systems of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) are certified according to requirements of ISO 9001:2015 standard "Quality management systems – Requirements" and Information security management system standard ISO 27001:2013. 

The Quality Policy of CSB consists of the CSB's vision, mission, core values and commitment to meet the requirements, follow good practice and ensure continuous improvement.

The quality policy is designed and implemented in accordance with the CSB strategy (3-year period) and the action plan.

The quality of statistics is assessed according to five quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. The quality indicators are calculated taking into account Eurostat defined methodology for the calculation of the Quality indicators. https://www.csp.gov.lv/en/quality-assurance-framework

One time in quarter relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness and punctuality, comparability, coherence are recorded. If upon using corrected, revised or delayed information in calculations significant (more than 0.1 percentage point) influence on the total Construction Cost Index throughout the year is found (over the corresponding quarter of the previous year), the published CCI data for the previous period are corrected. The revised indices are published together with the data of the following reporting period, with a note on correction.

Data of construction cost index for new residential buildings for users is available on the Official statistics portal data base. The data are updated every quarter. The main user of the mentioned variables is Eurostat.  EU's STS regulation requirements are fully met.

The index for user satisfaction isn't available, but there are regular contacts with the main users, in order to meet any specific information may be needed. At national level users are interested in the monthly Construction Cost Index (CCI) and cost development of its main components. CCI has been used in building contract agreements.

Statistics on construction cost index for new residential buildings are available on a quarterly basis and in accordance with legal requirements.

The accuracy is tackled at national level, by eliminating inconsistencies and errors. Data is collected monthly by web questionnaires, using the data validation rules. Additionally more attention is paid to items where price changes are more or less 20-25%.

Sampling errors are not calculated for Construction Cost Index indices because the sample is based on a “cut-off” sampling. 

The list of construction enterprises – respondents is formed by means of purposive sampling and it includes construction enterprises with the highest value of own account construction work (NACE Rev. 2 Section F) in the previous year. The sampled construction enterprises differ in specialization and represent various regions of Latvia. The criterion for the sample of trade enterprises is their turnover and specialization.

There are two main sources of possible bias which can occur in the CCI:

1) Data collection errors- the response rate is around 97.6%. Telephone contacts or electronic reminders are used to follow up missing responses.

2) Data processing errors- web questionnaires and Integrated Statistical data management system contains a validation and automatic controls, which helps to avoid processing errors.

No serious mistakes have been detected in the published data.

The information on Construction cost index for new residential buildings is published at 13:00 o’clock of local time on the 68th day after the reference quarter.

The information letters about questionnaires for the next year are sent to respondents at the end of the year.

The deadline for replies to questionnaires is the 12th day after the end of each reference month. The data collection is closed approximately on the 28th day after the reference month.

The data was published according to release calendar and sent to Eurostat at the same date when published on Official statistics portal.

Data published according to schedule. 

The construction costs are collected across the country so that index represents the country as a whole. 

The Construction cost index for new residential buildings is published on the Official statistics portal database, includes a quarterly data from 2006. The break in series took place in 2008, when a uniform construction model of a detached residential house was replaced with multi-dwelling residential building.

Construction cost index for new residential buildings is similar to the trend of construction cost index for residential buildings.

The labour cost component trend is comparable with the Labour Statistics data (Labour Cost Index).

Not available.

Cost of the CSB – 2401,8 hours annually.

Burden of enterprises – 1541,8 hours annually.

These are common costs for the construction cost index (CCI). It is impossible to distinguish separately costs for the construction cost index for new residential buildings.

CSB Revision Policy has been elaborated in accordance with the European Union and international recommendations and good practice.

The Revision Policy is the same as for national released data and for data transmitted to Eurostat.

Within the context of price statistics revisions of statistical data concern the published producer price indices may be revised in case an error is found in the calculations, or a respondent has submitted updated information for the previous period, which significantly – by more than 0.1 percentage point affects the total price index for the 12 months (m/(m - 12)). Indication of possible corrections of the published price indices for the previous period, receiving late or updated information is available in the respective index metadata description on the Official statistics portal. 

Calculation errors affecting the result to one decimal place are corrected and the following index revisions shall be implemented immediately. The corrected price indices are published together with the data for the next reporting period with an indication to the correction.

Revisions are announced simultaneously with the revised data (if there were found an errors and it were having influence to the CCI).

Major changes in methodology are announced on the Official statistics portal at the time the data compiled using the revised methodology are first published. 

For the calculation of indicators, the data collected for the calculation of the construction cost index (CCI) are applied: survey on construction resource prices; since 2012 – also prices provided by industrial producers and importers, statistical data of wages and salaries regarding the average hourly wages and salaries of all employees (survey 2 - Darbs). For the calculation of the weights, information regarding value of own account construction work in year t-1 (survey 1-Būvniecība) is used.

In 2023 the data on prices of construction resources were provided by approximately 200 construction enterprises and more than 50 trade enterprises. Each month 2.7 thsd prices of construction resources are used for the calculation of index. The sample is updated annually.

Monthly (construction costs)/ quarterly (labour costs).

The electronic reporting system is the main data collection tool. Data are collected on paper forms by mail questionnaires. Electronic questionnaires can be downloaded on the Internet website and filled in on-line.

The CSB has the main program used for data entering, processing with automatic control and validation tools - ISDMS (Integrated Statistical data management system). The data are compared with the previous period and the same period with the previous year. This tool does not support the price index compilation and transmission to Eurostat. Standard MS Office professional software (MS Excel, MS Access) is used for compilation and validation of construction cost indices. The data files before transmission to Eurostat are checked manually.

The index calculation is based on a chained Laspeyres-type formula and weights updated each year.

For the calculation of the CCI the approach of unified models is used. The structure of dwellings is represented by model of construction: multi-dwelling residential buildings that contains a set volume of expenditure on building materials, labour force and construction equipment.

For the calculation of the material cost index, prices of building materials provided by construction enterprises and trade enterprises (survey 1-BC), prices provided by producers and importers (reports 1-RC and 1-IC) and since 2020 registered consumer prices of building materials are used for CCI calculation.

December of previous year is used as reference period for CCI. 

The prices do not include the VAT.

For the calculation of the labour cost index the average hourly wages and salaries of the employees in the construction sector (including social contributions paid by the employer) in the enterprises included in the CCI sample (NACE Rev. 2 41, 42.21, 42.22 and 43) are used.

The construction cost indices are neither seasonally nor working day adjusted. 

Not applicable.