Prices in the Construction Sector in Uganda have gone down according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics report.
The report attributes the price decline to new entrants in the construction market of companies that are engaged in the manufacturing of the construction inputs as well as a reduction in cross border trade.
This can be attested to the fact that Rwanda for several months closed its border with Uganda hindering trade between Rwanda, Burundi and the Eastern DR Congo’s Goma area.
The new Annual Construction Sector Indices report for the year ending August 2019 indicates showed that the Annual average inputs price for the whole construction sector prices has decreased by 0.2% for the year ending August 2019 as compared to the 3.2% increase that was registered in the year ended August 2018.
Releasing the index report at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics Headquarters, Dick Wanasolo Wadada a UBOS Statistician in charge of the Construction Sector told reporters that the decline was largely due to a reduction in the cost of construction inputs.
“The 0.2% was driven by decreases in the input prices of Residential Buildings, Non Residential ones and followed for the inputs used in civil works whose rate went down by 0.6% for the year ended August 2019,” said Wanasolo.
This means that on average one had to pay 0.2% lower for the same inputs into construction works in August 2019 than in August 2018
Among the key construction inputs whose prices went down in the reviewed year were cement, whose price declined by 3.4% due to competition on the market, Roofing sheets by 1.0% and Steel bars by 1.4% due to a squeezed market.
Apart from the high competition on the market, there’s was also a reduction in cross border trade.
“During the year in review Uganda registered a decline in the cross border trade especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan this made all the locally produced inputs to be available for domestic market thus pushing the prices for such inputs down,” said Wanasolo.
BY SAMUEL NABWIISO
