Developing a basket of resources as a tool for collecting construction cost data internationally

Comparing construction costs between countries, even when the countries share a common currency, is recognised as a difficult problem. Construction cost data has been included in the World Bank's International Comparison Program for many years and that data has been collected using a variety of methods. Currently several different methods are in use within the ICP and these include several types of baskets of inputs of various types and combinations. These methods have been constantly under review and as part of the latest review a new approach is being developed based around a basket of resources (BoR). The new basket has been developed based on analysis of pricing instruments used in a number of earlier studies and several ongoing pricing exercises conducted regularly by commercial concerns such as large international quantity surveying organisations. The materials/components section of the new BoR, its development and some early observations of its use in practice are presented. Further development and refinement of the basket is outlined.