Where does Philippine construction material price data actually come from?

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) publishes two official monthly indices: the Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI) and the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI), both benchmarked to the National Capital Region. These are the primary government data sources for construction material price movement in the Philippines.

Are cement and rebar prices rising or falling in the Philippines in 2026?

As of March 2026 PSA wholesale data, cement prices were still declining year-on-year (-1.5%, a slower decline than -2.3% in February), and reinforcing steel (rebar) was nearly flat at -0.1% year-on-year. However, fuel price spikes in early 2026 have pushed rebar spot quotations higher in some markets, so wholesale index trends and real-time spot prices can diverge.

Why do construction material prices only cover NCR, not the whole Philippines?

PSA's official CMRPI and CMWPI indices are collected and published specifically for the National Capital Region. Prices in other regions typically track the same underlying trend (materials are largely priced off the same national supply chains) but carry additional freight and logistics costs that increase with distance from Metro Manila — most pronounced in island provinces.

Cost Data · Philippines · Updated Quarterly

Construction Material Price Trends Philippines 2026 — Tracked from Official PSA Data

By AEDO Engineering · July 31, 2026 · 6 min read · Get a Detailed Estimate →

What this page is: Most "construction cost per sqm" content quotes a single number and moves on. This page tracks the actual underlying data — the Philippine Statistics Authority's official Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI) and Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI) — and explains what each month's movement means for a real project budget. We update this quarterly as PSA releases new data. Last updated with data through May 2026 (retail) and March 2026 (wholesale, PSA's latest available at time of writing).

If you've priced a project in the Philippines any time in the last few years, you've felt it: the quote you got in January doesn't hold by the time you break ground. Material costs move constantly, and most "cost per sqm" guides — including our own cost comparison page — give you a snapshot, not the trend underneath it.

This page tracks that trend directly from the source: PSA's own published indices, not an aggregator's estimate.

Retail Prices: CMRPI (National Capital Region, 2012=100)

The CMRPI tracks year-on-year retail price growth for construction materials sold in Metro Manila. It's been accelerating through 2026:

Month (2026)	Year-on-Year Growth	Trend
January	1.2%	↑ rising
February	1.2%	flat
March	1.3%	↑ rising
April	1.7%	↑ rising
May	1.8%	↑ rising

Retail material inflation nearly doubled from January to May 2026 — a builder pricing a project on old (January) assumptions is already underestimating finishing-stage material costs by a meaningful margin.

What's driving it — category breakdown (May 2026 vs. April 2026)

Category	May 2026 YoY	April 2026 YoY
Painting materials & compounds	2.9%	2.2%
Tinsmithry materials	2.9%	2.5%
Electrical materials	2.0%	1.9%
Masonry materials	2.0%	1.9%
Miscellaneous construction materials	1.6%	1.5%
Plumbing materials	0.8%	0.5%
Carpentry materials	0.6%	0.6%

What this means for your budget: painting/finishing and tinsmithry (roofing sheet metal, gutters, flashing) are the fastest-moving categories right now. If you're budgeting a project that won't reach finishing stage for several months, build in more contingency on finishes than the structural-stage estimate might suggest — carpentry and plumbing materials are comparatively stable.

Wholesale Prices: CMWPI (National Capital Region, 2018=100)

The wholesale index tells a different story from retail — useful if you're a contractor buying in bulk rather than a homeowner buying retail quantities.

Material	March 2026 YoY	February 2026 YoY	Trend
Cement	-1.5%	-2.3%	still declining, but slower
Reinforcing steel (rebar)	-0.1%	-0.9%	flattening out
Overall CMWPI (NCR)	1.1%	1.0%	↑ rising

The rebar caveat: the wholesale index shows reinforcing steel roughly flat year-on-year, but that's an index trend, not a live spot price. Fuel price increases in early 2026 pushed real rebar quotations from roughly ₱37/kg toward ₱41–45/kg in some markets — a supply-chain cost spike the monthly index hasn't fully caught up to yet. If your project has a large rebar quantity and hasn't locked in pricing, this is the material to check current supplier quotes on before finalizing a budget, not just the published index.

What this means if you're planning a project

Lock in structural materials early if you can. Cement is still in a mild wholesale decline, but rebar pricing is more exposed to fuel-cost volatility than the index shows.
Pad your finishing-stage budget more than your structural-stage budget. Painting and tinsmithry materials are inflating fastest — if your project timeline is long, the finish-stage costs you priced today may be understated by the time you get there.
Don't treat any single "cost per sqm" figure as fixed. See our house construction cost guide and cost per sqm comparison for current ranges — but use this page to gut-check whether material costs are trending up or down since those figures were last set.

Sources

PSA — Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI), official index page
PSA — Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI), official index page
"NCR building material inflation quickens in May" — BusinessWorld, June 10, 2026
"PSA: Metro construction materials wholesale prices rise slightly in March" — BusinessMirror, April 15, 2026
"PSA: Price of construction materials increased in March" — BusinessMirror, April 13, 2026

Citing this page? Feel free to link directly to this tracker — we update it as new PSA data is released. For the primary data, PSA's own index pages (linked above) are the authoritative source.