Business

Food and energy prices down in November as wholesale prices ease

Construction material costs also declined in the month but remained higher than last year, says CSO

The price of construction materials declined in November but remained higher than 12 months ago, the CSO said on Friday. Photograph: Dave Bolton/Getty Images

Ian Curran
Fri Dec 22 2023 - 11:56

Irish factory gate prices continued to decline last month as wholesale electricity and food costs continued to ease, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Friday.

Wholesale electricity prices – the price that energy retailers pay for generated electricity before selling it to customers – fell 2.1 per cent in the month to the end of November compared with October and were down more than 14 per cent over 12 months.

The overall energy price subindex also declined 2.5 per cent in the month and was down 11.8 per cent year-on-year as price pressures brought on by the war in Ukraine last year have eased.

Food prices, the other main driver of inflation in the Republic over the past 18 months, have also weakened substantially throughout the year, according to the CSO data.

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Overall food prices have declined 8.8 per cent since last November with particularly notable declines in the price of dairy products, down 35 per cent year-on-year, and animal and vegetable oils, down 8.2 per cent.

Construction material prices, meanwhile, remain elevated despite a decline of 0.3 per cent in November. Prices in this category remain 0.4 per cent higher than they were last year after a notable spike during the Covid-19 pandemic due to a combination of high demand and international supply chain issues.

Cement was 6.2 per cent more expensive in November than it was 12 months before, the CSO said, with stone, sand and gravel prices also 14 per cent higher than November 2022. Timber prices, meanwhile, have softened by 7.6 per cent over the year while steel and reinforcing metal prices have tumbled by 9.3 per cent.

Wholesale prices feed into the price paid by consumers for goods, which the CSO aggregates and measures in its consumer price index. The statistics agency said last week that Irish consumer price inflation fell below 4 per cent for the first time in over two years in November but remained 3.9 per cent higher than they were a year previous.

The figures reflect a general easing of price pressures across the Irish economy on the back of falling energy prices internationally and as a result of 10 straight interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank (ECB).

Ian Curran

Ian Curran

Ian Curran is a Business reporter with The Irish Times

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