Dive Brief:

• The cost of construction materials inched up slightly — 0.2% — in June after a 1.1% increase the month before, the Associated Builders and Contractors reported on Wednesday.

• Still, prices were 2.2% lower last month than in June 2014; in fact, prices have not increased on an annual basis for the past seven months, the ABC said.

• Five key input prices rose in June, for: crude energy materials; fabricated structural metal products; natural gas, iron and steel; and softwood lumber. Prices in six categories of materials dropped: plumbing fixtures; prepared asphalt, tar roofing and siding; steel mill products; concrete products; crude petroleum; and nonferrous wire and cable.

Dive Insight:

June’s prices, which ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu called “well-behaved,” are not typical of what is to come, he said. “At some point, prices will begin to rise, perhaps aggressively, but that time has not yet arrived.”

For now, a strong dollar and the economic crisis in Greece are helping to hold commodity prices down. "The marketplace continues to be dominated by crisis economics,” Basu said in a release. “In such circumstances, the market response is to project slower global economic growth and drive commodity prices lower.”