Ülo Paulus, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that in the first quarter of this year, compared with the first quarter of 2023, the CPI was primarily influenced by the increase in workers' wages, which accounted for 58 percent of the change in the index, according to a press release.

"Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, labor force was 2.6 percent more expensive, while the price of building materials fell by 1 percent and the cost of using building machines by 0.8 percent," Paulus noted.

The biggest contributors to the correction in input prices, meanwhile, were manufacturers of concrete products and large equipment rental companies.

The repair and reconstruction work price index, meanwhile, fell by 0.2 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2023 and by 0.1 percent on year.

The construction price index (CPI) expresses the change in construction expenditures taking into consideration the price changes of three basic inputs: labor force, building machines and building materials. The calculation of the CPI covers four groups of buildings: detached houses, apartment buildings, industrial buildings and office buildings. The repair and reconstruction work price index covers office buildings.

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