Thailand's construction materials prices continue to rise, the construction industry and the real estate industry are under pressure.

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > < FONT face = Verdana > The price of building materials has been rising steadily since the beginning of this year, even reaching the highest level in history. The Ministry of Commerce of Thailand announced the latest price index of building materials in July 2008, mainly including:

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > The average construction material price index rose to 177.0 in July 2008, an increase of 1.0% from 175.3 in the previous month, an increase of 31.1% not only over the same period last year, but also an acceleration from 29.3% in the previous month. The main reason is that while steel prices have increased by 75.7% over the same period last year, the prices of other major building materials have also risen sharply.

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > However, Taihua Farmers Research Center predicts that the price of construction materials may decline slightly in the rest of this year, because the domestic oil price, which is the transportation cost of construction materials, has fallen sharply with the trend of world oil prices and the reduction of consumption tax rate. At the same time, world raw material prices, especially steel prices, are also likely to ease with the economic slowdown in various regions of the world. As a result, the price index of construction materials is expected to rise by an average of 25%, significantly higher than 4.9% increase in 2007 and a record high, as was the case during the first oil crisis in 1973-1974.

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > a 25% increase in the price of construction materials within a year will have a significant impact on construction projects, as the cost of decorative materials and construction materials accounts for an average of 60% of construction costs. In addition, transportation costs, energy costs and labor costs have also increased. These negative factors not only directly affect the real estate industry and the construction industry, but also affect the cost of the government's large-scale infrastructure investment projects, and the construction progress of the large-scale infrastructure investment projects encounters obstacles, which may lead to lower than expected overall investment growth in the country, thus dragging down and reducing the economic growth rate in the second half of this year.

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