Costs of many pharma products rise at the start of new lockdown

Costs of pharmaceutical products, appliances and equipment climbed 1% in the month. Picture: iStock
Prices for pharmaceutical products rose, and the costs of medical services such as dental fees were up sharply in the year, despite prices having fallen almost universally across the rest of the economy in the first weeks of the new lockdown, new official figures suggest.
The CSO figures for consumer prices in October, which capture the early weeks of the level 5 shutdown, show prices of goods and services across the economy continued to slide, by 0.6%, from September. And prices were down by a significant 1.5% compared with October 2019 – before the onset of the Covid-19 crisis this year.