CSO: Services producer prices increase by over 4% 

In the first quarter, services producer prices increased by 1.1%. This compares to a 1.5% increase recorded in the final quarter of 2021.

Services producer prices were increased on average by 4.1% in the first quarter of 2022 in comparison to the same period last year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Significant annual increases were seen in a number of industries including air transport, as well as sea and coastal transport, which rose by 29.8% and 21.5% respectively. While warehousing, storage and cargo handling, up 16.4%, and security and investigation increased by 8.9%.

In the first quarter, services producer prices increased by 1.1%. This compares to a 1.5% increase recorded in the final quarter of 2021.

The most notable quarterly price increases were found in security and investigation, up 13.7%, and sea and coastal transport, an increase of 9.8%. Rising quarterly prices were also observed in warehousing, storage and cargo handling which increased by 9.6%. 

In comparison, quarterly services producer prices for air transport declined by 4.3%.

The figures from CSO show that annual services produced price inflation is now at a level last observed in the final quarter of 2020, following a reduced level of annual price changes in 2021.

Services producer prices were on average 4.1% higher in Quarter 1 2022 compared with a year earlierhttps://t.co/hL0ZK20qzH #CSOIreland #Ireland #IrishBusiness #BusinessStatistics #BusinessNews #ServicesIndex #MonthlyServices #WholesalePrices #ServicesPrices pic.twitter.com/CwNteZDYAq

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) June 15, 2022

There are several sectors that contributed a significant amount towards the overall annual price changes. The rising costs of air transport made up over half of the services producer prices increase at 2.1% out of 4.1%. While freight and removal by road as well as legal, accounting, PR and business consultancy both accounted for an additional 0.5% of the price change.

Jillian Delaney, Statistician in the Prices Division, CSO said: "The Services Producer Price Index (SPPI) is an experimental release, with a limited sample of services covering a limited range of services sectors. This means that changes in some of the sub-indices for services sectors are based on prices charged for a small number of services products. 

"This can result in high volatility (i.e. large changes in the values of the indices) which is not always representative of the wider sector. The SPPI is currently being redeveloped, and this new SPPI will address these issues."