eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
The monthly civil engineering plant price index rose by 6,33 percentage points in September 2021 to 11,38 percent driven by excavators, rollers, graders, ground engaging tools and ground carriers, official figures show.
According to the latest figures from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) the cost of civil engineering plants rose by 6,33 percentage points on the August monthly rate of 5,05 percent.
Construction prices raced ahead of consumer prices, which saw a monthly inflation rate of 4,73 percent in September 2021, gaining 0,55 percentage points on the August 2021 rate.
“This means that prices as measured by the all items Civil Engineering Plant Price Index (CEPPI) increased at an average rate of 11,38 percent from August 2021 to September 2021,” ZimStat said.
The statistics agency said this means that the increase in prices was observed in September 2021 on excavators, rollers, graders, ground engaging tools and undercarriage.
Large civil engineering projects tend to take a long time to plan and build, maintenance and framework agreements and the like tend to be for extended periods and regulatory periods for infrastructure sectors are generally for five years or more.
As such, dealing with inflation during the planning, construction and maintenance of infrastructure projects is an important issue. The normal means of adjusting for inflation is by use of an index.
ZimStat said the contribution of the loaders was insignificant to the rise or fall of the index, meaning the prices of the product almost remained constant between the two months.
Drive trains contributed to the decrease of the civil engineering plant price index during the period under review. This means prices of the product went down in September 2021.
The year on year or annualised Civil Engineering Plant Price Index (CEPPI) rate of change stood at 64,78 percent in September 2021.
“This means that prices as measured by the all items Civil Engineering Plant Price Index increased at an average rate of 64,78 percent from September 2020 to September 2021,” Zimstat said.
Similarly, the annual CEPPI rate hurtled ahead of the consumer price index whose yearly inflation rate for the month of September 2021 stood at 51,55 percent. While the overall inflation rate has been going down, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe last week revised upwards its year end inflation target to between 35 and 53 percent from 25-35 percent initially.
The statistics agency said the CEPPI for September 2021 stood at 2 683 compared to 2 408 in August this year and 1,628 over the same period in September 2020.
The month-on-month CEPPI rate of change stood at 4,32 percent in January 2021 shedding 6,86 percentage points on the December 2020 rate of 11,18 percent. The annual CEPPI rate stood at 389,64 percent in January 2021.
