According to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), the Construction Cost Index (ICC) in Greater Buenos Aires increased by 2.3% in the last month. This increase reflects the new values agreed upon by the Argentine Workers' Union of Construction (UOCRA) in their salary agreement.
Among the components that make up this index, the 3% increase in the "Wage labor" category and the 1.4% increase in "Labor subcontracting" stand out. On the other hand, in the "General expenses" section, new tariff values approved by the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) for the electric tariffs of distributors Edenor and Edesur since February 1 were incorporated, which generated an increase in some items such as "Masonry" (3.1%), "Earth movement" (3.1%), "Structure" (2.5%), and "Sanitary and fire installation" (2.4%).
In contrast, smaller increases were observed in areas such as "Electrical installation" (0.3%), "Plastering" (0.3%), and "Painting" (0.2%), while "Metal carpentry and blacksmithing" remained unchanged compared to the previous month. In annual terms, "General expenses" decreased by 24.9 percentage points, "Materials" recorded a decrease of 4.2 percentage points, and "Labor" was the only component with an increase of 0.7 percentage points.
In summary, the 2.3% increase in the ICC is explained by the 1.9% rise in "Materials", 2.7% in "Labor", and 2.1% in "General expenses".
