Wholesale prices in Ireland saw a consistent increase for the third consecutive month in February, reaching a peak not seen since the previous year, according to the data released by the Central Statistics Office on Friday.
Year-over-year output prices within the manufacturing sector observed an increase of 3.3 percent in February, marking a substantial acceleration from the 2.2 percent increment posted in January. This pace of growth was the most rapid since February 2023 when an escalation of 3.6 percent was noted.
Focusing on individual sectors, the prices of chemicals and chemical-related products experienced the highest leap, recording a year-on-year growth of 22.2 percent in February, followed by a 11.0 percent increase in beverages. Additionally, the prices for fish and related products surged by 7.0 percent.
Contrariwise, a downward movement in prices was observed in the dairy sector, with a sharp drop of 28.5 percent. Cumulative prices for food products also declined by 9.3 percent.
With regards to domestic sales, prices decreased by 3.3 percent in February as compared to the previous year, while prices for export market exhibited a rise of 3.7 percent.
In terms of the energy sector, the data revealed that wholesale electricity prices had a significant fall of 46.8 percent on a year-on-year basis in February. Simultaneously, prices for construction materials marginally dropped by 0.7 percent.
In a comparison of monthly rates, wholesale prices observed an upward trajectory in February with an increase of 1.1 percent, albeit lower than the 1.4 percent increment registered in January.
