Construction-related service prices are on the upward trend. Bank of Japan announced October 27 that Services Producer Price Index of construction services such as architectural and civil engineering design services increased by 7.3% from the same month of the year before to 110.2 against 100 for the base year of 2010. The increase has continued for 12 months and stood more than 110 for five months.

It is considered that the increase of the labor unit price for public works and the labor shortage derived from growing investment contributed to the trend as well as the consumption tax hike in April.

Though it had long stayed low, the construction services price index started to pick up gradually after the 2011 East Japan Earthquake. By sectors, surface surveying recorded 115.9, the highest among all construction services, followed by architectural design services, 110.6, civil engineering services, 108.9, and subsurface surveying, 106.6.

BOJ predicts the index will stay in the current standard in spite of fewer new orders of housing development as a large number of received orders remain uncompleted. (2014/10/28)