With workers at home and supply bottlenecks, there were pandemic-related drops in the production and importation of many construction materials. These supply shortages contributed to skyrocketing input prices. In January 2022, lumber prices included in the Producer Price Index were 92 percent higher than the 2019 average. Even with increased materials costs, suppliers have been unable to keep up with demand.
A conservative estimate of the net benefits Netting the long-run benefits of less frequent financial crises with the long-run and transition costs yields average net benefits for G-20 economies of 30 per cent of GDP in present-value terms, or about € trillion (Table 1).