Producer prices for dairy products dropped by more than 17% in the year to July 2023, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The Wholesale Price Index for June 2023, published today (Tuesday, August 22), shows that producer prices in the food products index dropped by 2.8% in the month to July 2023 and this overall index was 8.1% lower than in July 2022.
Producer prices for meat and meat products were back 2% in a year, while grain milling, starches, and animal feeds decreased by 1.2%.
Vegetable and animal oils and fats were down by 9% in the year and prices for other food products decreased by 10.7%.
Several food categories were higher compared with July 2022, including fruit and vegetables, (+14.9%), fish and fish products (+1.4%), and baking and starch products (+0.9%).
CSO
The CSO data also shows that wholesale electricity prices decreased by almost 18% on June and were 64% lower in July 2023 when compared with July 2022.
“This comes after a previous monthly increase of 11.3% in June 2023,” Edel Flannery, senior statistician in the CSO prices division, said.
“Electricity costs on the wholesale market are now lower than any time during the past two years. The last time that prices were lower than the current rate was in June 2021,” she added.
Petrol prices were unchanged from June but were down 14.4% when compared to July 2022. The price of diesel rose by 3% month-on-month but was back almost 19% on a year ago.
Domestic producer prices for manufactured goods were on average 0.2% higher in July 2023 compared with a year earlier, while producer prices for exported goods fell by 5.4%.
Overall, manufacturing producer prices were 5.2% lower in the year.
Prices
Wholesale prices for construction products decreased by 0.4% in the month to June 2023 but rose by 2.2% in the 12 months since July 2022.
The CSO data shows that stone, sand and gravel is 8.6% more expensive than a year ago, ready-mixed mortar and concrete is up by 15%, concrete blocks and bricks by 11.6%, and plaster prices jumped by over 20%.
Structural steel and reinforcing metal prices are down 8% on July 2022, while machined, treated engineered timber decreased by nearly 18%.