An Assessment of the Impact of Inflation on the Prices of Selected Construction Materials in Sudan

The construction industry is considered as one of the pillars of countries' economy and responsible for the physical development of their built environment. The growth in the industry's activities is always coupled with higher demand for capital, labor, materials and technology. The results of an analytical study onto the effect of inflation on prices of selected construction materials in Sudan are presented in this paper. Inflationary increase in the prices of these materials was studied over the period 2012 to 2018. Inflation rates data was collected from the Central Bank of Sudan (CBOS) formal statistics and the building materials prices were obtained from the local market. The results confirmed that inflation rates in Sudan have been far from stable, and have affected materials prices considerably. Regression analysis was performed on the data and the results yielded a third order polynomial equation relating the cumulative inflation rate and construction material prices. Based on the results; a significant level of correlation was reached, indicating the appropriateness of using the cumulative inflation rate in predicting the affected prices of building materials. The study called for the use of the calculated construction material inflation rate index (CMIR) as a suitable computation method for fluctuation in material prices and consequently, more realistic estimating and cost planning.