MANILA, Philippines—The rate of increase in wholesale prices of building materials in Metro Manila slowed down to 9.8 percent year-on-year in May, a nine-month low since September last year when the figure was 23.5 percent.

The downtrend is seen as encouraging further growth in the construction industry, to which government economic managers are looking as a driver of stronger economic growth in the second quarter.

Data from the National Statistics Office show that the construction materials wholesale price index (CMWPI) for the National Capital Region in May eased from 12.2 percent year-on-year in April.

The CMWPI covers 25 commodity groups including sand, stone and gravel; cement; lumber; plywood; wood products; fuels and lubricants; asphalt; glass and glass products; hardware; metal pipes; and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes.

The NSO reported that price increases year-on-year in May were slower in hardware (18.7 percent), metal pipes (5.5 percent), concrete products (9.9 percent), reinforcing steel (20.2 percent), structural steel (9.4 percent), GI sheets (13.5 percent), exterior electrical equipment/supplies (9.9 percent), interior electrical fixtures and devices (5.5 percent) and electrical rough-in materials (3.4 percent).

However, gains were higher in the prices of cement (6.1 percent), lumber (8.1 percent) and paints (4.4 percent).

Also, prices of fuels and lubricants fell faster at 23.9 percent from the decrease of 20.9 percent in May 2008.

The remaining 12 sub-indices showed the same rate of increases as last year, including those for sand, stone and gravel (5.9 percent), wood products (10.1 percent), glass and glass products (2.7 percent), PVC pipes (5.4 percent).

Further, the overall rise in prices of construction materials ticked up by 0.1 percent month-on-month from a decline of 0.2 percent in April.

Faster increases were observed in reinforcing steel (0.5 percent) and lumber and paints (0.3 percent).