Manufacturing prices in Ireland - a measure of underlying inflation - decreased by 0.5 per cent in May according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This represents an annual increase of 0.3 per cent compared to 1.0 per cent in April. The CSO’s index for export sales decreased by 0.9 per cent while the index for home sales increased by 0.5 per cent in May.
The main contributors to the monthly change were a 1.1 per cent fall in pharmaceuticals & other chemical products, a 0.9 per cent fall in basic chemicals and 1.1 per cent fall in other food products.
Contributing to the annual change was 3 per cent increase in food products, a 3.6 per cent increase meat and meat products, while there was 4.5 per cent decrease in pharmaceuticals and other chemical products as well as an 8.9 per cent decrease in radio, television and communication equipment.