Wholesale electricity prices fall 35.6% compared to June last year – CSO
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
Wholesale electricity prices have fallen compared to the same period last year, according to published figures.
Meanwhile, food producer costs fell by 3.4 per cent and construction sector materials and wages increased by 4.9 per cent in the same period.
Wholesale electricity prices, or what is paid for electricity from the Single Electricity Market grid, increased by 11.3 per cent between May and June – but were 35.6 per cent lower compared to June last year.
An increase or decrease in wholesale prices can be an indication of what consumer prices will be in the future.
According to the Wholesale Price Index, published by the Central Statistics Office on Friday, producer prices for manufactured goods sold domestically were an average of 3.9 per cent higher in June compared with a year earlier.
Producer prices for exported goods fell by 0.8 per cent, and overall producer prices were 0.6% lower in the year.
Producer prices for food products fell by 3.4 per cent in the 12 months to June, while the food products, beverages and tobacco index was down by 2.5 per cent.
Senior statistician in the prices division Edel Flannery said: “Wholesale price inflation showed a small increase in June 2023 with a rise of 0.5 per cent to the overall producer price index for the manufacturing industries in the month.
“The price index for export sales also rose by 0.5 per cent since May 2023, while the index for home sales fell by 0.7 per cent in the month.
“Producer prices in the food products index dropped by 1.8 per cent in the month to June 2023 and this overall index was 3.4 per cent lower than in June 2022.
“Prices for some food products fell in the month, for example other food products (-3.5 per cent) and dairy products (-2.1 per cent).
“Prices for these products were also lower on an annual basis compared with June 2022, with other food products seeing a reduction of 4 per cent in the year and dairy products down by 13.1 per cent.
“Several other food categories were still significantly higher in June 2023 compared with the same month in 2022, including fruit and vegetables (16.3 per cent), fish and fish products (13.2 per cent) and baking and farinaceous products (3.8 per cent).
“Wholesale electricity prices increased by 11.3 per cent in the month to June 2023 but were 35.6 per cent lower over the 12 months from June 2022.
“The All Materials Index for construction products remained unchanged in the month but increased by 6.5 per cent in the year, while the building and construction (ie, materials and wages) index also remained unchanged in the month but was 4.9 per cent higher than the same month last year.”