Construction

The source of data: statistical surveys on construction of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office from construction enterprises, the business register and the sub-annual value added tax declaration.
Scope of data-suppliers: since 1998 enterprises classified to the construction having more than 49 employees are observed by full scope survey, between 5 and 49 persons by sample survey.
Method of estimation: enterprises having employees between 5-49 persons are observed by sample survey. The sampling is stratified, the method of grossing up is the multiplication of the sample mean by the sample size for the various strata. The standard error is calculated in the traditional way.
Comparability: Council regulation of EU relating to statistical register (Council Regulation (EEC) No 2186 of 22 July 1993 on the community co-ordination in drawing up business registers for statistical purposes) ordains, that in statistical register statistical units should be classified into the deepest (4-digit) level of activity classification NACE Rev.1.1 (Hungarian equivalent is TEÁOR'03) according to their principal activity. The principal activity is identified as the activity, which at factor cost contributes most to the total value added of the unit concerned.
Buildings: roofed constructions which can be used separately, have been built for permanent purposes, can be entered by persons and are suitable or intended for protecting persons, animals and objects.
Civil engineering works: construction not classified under buildings: railways, roads, bridges, highways, airport runways, dams etc.
Production of construction: performed by employees belonging to the staff of the enterprise or by contractual employees and with own or leased machines for the purpose to erect new buildings or expand, re-build, maintain or demolish existing buildings.
Volume indices of production of construction: they show the change in value of the construction-installation activities at comparative price of the reference period.
Indices on the basis of 2000: the seasonally adjusted volume indices with fixed basis indicate the change of production compared to the quarterly average performance of the year 2000 (at the price level January 2000). Seasonally adjusted data are corrected by the working day indices. Working day and seasonal adjustment are implemented by the computer program package DEMETRA based on moving averages.
Region: a planning or statistical unit covering some adjoining counties or the capital, defined by the administrative boundaries of these counties.
Stock of orders: it is defined as the value of orders concluded by the enterprises classified to the construction as main contractors with the orderers for construction-installation activity. It includes the value of orders received and accepted by the construction enterprises.
New orders: all orders on construction, received and accepted by the contractor in the reference month, whether fulfilled or not.
Volume indices of orders: they show the change in value of orders at comparative price of the reference period.
Scope of data: data derive from the monthly survey on construction.
Data corrections: Data published in this publication are preliminary, therefore they can differ from the previously published ones because of data revisions. Revisions are validated quarterly. Revised data are published in the quick releases of reference months March, June, September and December. Data of reference year from January are revised and modified at this time. We depart from this practice in reasonable cases only, if significant error is detected. In this case we realize an exceptional data revision, and corrected data are published in the following quick release.
The final annual data of the previous year are complied in July–August every year. Data are published in the quick release of reference month June. This revision can change – besides the monthly volume indices and value data of the base year – the indices of the reference year too.
Explanation of symbols

Construction producer price index

For the calculation of the construction producer price index we use the "component cost" methodology – as it is known in the international practice. The main point of it is that with the breakdown of the construction of whole structures we can obtain homogenous items,– so called construction operations –, and with them we can calculate the price indices, using the adequate weight system. We calculate output price indices, which measures the changes of the prices paid by the constructor to the executor. The output price index takes into account not only the changes of the cost factors of construction just like the input price index, but also the changes of the productivity and the executor's profit. However it does not include the changes of the architect's and other fees, the cost of the building plot, VAT, etc. We calculate the indices from the market prices, which we collect from the contracts of the construction enterprises.
Source of data: No. 1831 "Construction price statistics" quarterly survey, which is ordered by the government in the National Statistical Data Survey Program.
Scope of data suppliers: about 950 assigned enterprises, belonging to the branch of construction.
Observation unit: the construction operation. For the survey we selected 217 representative construction operations. Their comparability is insured by fixed technical parameters. The suppliers choose from them the operations which are best representing their activity (most frequent, most valued operations) and set the technical parameters of the operations according to its own practice after a consultation with the expert of HCSO.
Unit price of the construction operations: the prices of the selected operations, including material and fee prices without VAT. These prices are taken from the entrepreneur fee establishing budgets of the contracts' and contracts modifications' from the reference period (between 15th of the first month and 15th of the middle month of the quarter of the year) and should be supplied quarterly.
Producer price index of construction: an index calculated, with base period's weights, from the unit prices of construction operations sold on the market by enterprises which belong to the branch of construction.
Price indices of types of construction: indices calculated, with specified weighting ratios, from the indices of construction operations, which characterize the type of construction.
Calculation methodology The basic element of the calculation is the enterprise relative numbers by operations, which is the quotient of the current period's and the previous period's prices. From these quotients first we calculate – using arithmetical averages – on the one hand enterprise indices, subsequently in several steps the weighted construction price index. Weights are annual production values from the construction statistics, which are changing every year. On the other hand from the price relative numbers we compute price indices for each selected operations. The price indices of types of constructions are determined as a weighted arithmetical mean of indices of operations. The weights derive from the invoice material of selected construction projects, where the cost by operations is listed and are revised in several years. The data of these materials are processed by construction experts.