Description:Inflation came into 2008 like a lion but it's leaving as a lamb. Steel and oil prices spiked to record levels during the first half of the year, but then the worse financial crisis since the Great Depression unfolded and knocked prices back down. Last summer's cost surge is still working its way through the construction industry cost indexes but commodity prices are already falling and ENR predicts they will drag building costs down next year.
Main Articles:
• Forecast: Recession knocks out inflation in 2009
• Equipment: Sales take a tumble
• International: Inflation down worldwide
• Asia: China's economic woes pull the region down
• Middle East: Collapse in oil prices cools off hot market
• Mexico: Devaluation of peso pumps up cost of imported materials
• Canada: Resisting the tug of the U.S. recession
Data Tables:
• ENR's 2009 Cost Forecast
• Materials Price Inflation Through 2009
• Builders' Construction Cost Indexes
• Construction Materials Price Movement in 2008
• U.S. Cement Consumption Forecast
• Industrial Building Purchasing Parities/Index
• Construction Machinery Sales Forecast for 2009, by Units
• Building Cost Forecast 2009
• Building Inflation
• World Labor Rates
• International Commercial and Industrial Building Costs
• International Material Prices
• Canadian Building Permit Activity
