Metro Manila construction materials wholesale prices hit three-year high in August

Wholesale price growth of construction materials in Metro Manila accelerated to a 3.6% year-on-year increase in August, the fastest in three years. The Philippine Statistics Authority attributed the rise mainly to higher prices of concrete products.

Wholesale price growth of construction materials in Metro Manila accelerated to a three-year high in August, mainly driven by higher prices of concrete products, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.

Preliminary PSA data showed the construction materials wholesale price index (CMWPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) rose by 3.6% year on year in August, faster than the 3.5% increase in July and a turnaround from the 0.5% decline in August 2025. The August reading was the fastest in three years, or since the 5.6% increase recorded in August 2023.

For the January-to-August period, the CMWPI averaged 2.2%, accelerating from flat growth in the same period last year. The PSA attributed the faster August increase mainly to concrete products, whose prices rose by 5.4% year on year, slightly faster than 5.2% in July. This also reversed the 0.6% decline recorded in August last year.

Faster price increases were also recorded in hardware (0.5% in August from 0.3% in July), plywood (0.5% from 0.4%), lumber (1.1% from 0.9%), galvanized iron sheets (1.1% from 0.4%), reinforcing steel (2.4% from 2.2%), structural steel (3.8% from 3.7%), tileworks (2.2% from 2%), plumbing fixtures and accessories/waterworks (0.8% from 0.5%), and fuels and lubricants (8.1% from 5.7%).

Meanwhile, price growth eased for sand and gravel to 5% in August from 5.1% in July, and for PVC pipes to 0.2% from 0.8%. The indices of the remaining commodity groups were unchanged from their July levels. The CMWPI tracks changes in the wholesale prices of construction materials in Metro Manila and uses 2018 as its base year.