Wholesale electricity prices have fallen by more than 72 per cent since the peak of the energy price shock. Central Statistics Office (CSO) data indicates electricity prices were unchanged in June from the previous month but down 8 per cent on the same month last year.
The CSO noted electricity prices were down more than 40.7 per cent on the June 2022 level and down by 72.2 per cent on the August 2022 level.
Energy prices, which had increased significantly in the wake of Covid, spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, reaching a peak in August that year. Wholesale electricity prices rose by 195 per cent between August 2021 and August 2022, with the wholesale price of electricity peaking at almost €400 per MWh (megawatt hour) compared with an average of about €38 per MWh in 2020.
The quicker-than-expected softening of headline inflation in Ireland and in the euro zone has been driven by falling energy prices. The Republic’s headline rate of inflation, as measured by the CSO’s consumer price index, fell to 2.2 per cent in June.
The latest CSO data indicates that domestic producer prices for manufactured goods were on average 1 per cent lower in June when compared with a year earlier, while producer prices for exported goods were up by 2.9 per cent.
Producer prices for food products dropped by 4.4 per cent in the 12 months to June, the CSO said.
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