The prices of manufactured goods continued to rise in May, driven by strong increases in the prices of computer, electronics and food products.
Monthly factory gate prices increased by 1.1 per cent in May, a 2 per cent year on year increase, according to the Central Statistics Office’s latest wholesale price index.
In the month, the price index for export sales increased by 1.1 per cent while home sales increased by 1.0 per cent. The index gained 1 per cent in April.
The most significant changes in May were increases in computer, electronic and optical products (+7.8 per cent), food products (+3.5 per cent) and chemical products (+3.4 per cent).
There was a decrease of almost 5 per cent in basic pharmaceutical products.
The CSO said the annual change was again driven by computer, electronic and optical products (+11.0 per cent).
This was supported by increases Dairy Products (+10.3 per cent), and food products including bread and confectionary (+6.3 per cent).
The price of basic pharmaceutical products and preparations fell by 8.5 per cent, beverages were down 4.1 per cent and fabricated metal products, excluding machinery and equipment fell by 3.7 per cent.
Despite the slowdown in the construction sector the price of building materials increased by 2.7 per cent in the year to May.
The price of energy products increased by 7.9 per cent in that period, while the cost of petroleum fuels was up 26.2 per cent.
