Farmers who invested in farm building projects over the last 12 months are likely to have experienced a sharp rise in costs according to latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which show wholesale prices for construction products have jumped by 14.7%.
The latest Wholesale Price Index published by the CSO today (Wednesday, March 22) shows that wholesale prices for construction products increased by 0.2% last month and by 14.7% in the 12 months since February 2022.
The biggest increases were in:
- Structural steel fabricated metal: 73.1%;
- Plaster: 34.8%;
- Plumbing materials: 29.9%;
- Ready-mixed mortar and concrete: 24.2%;
- Cement: 24.1%;
- Paints, oils and varnishes: 23.6%.
According to the CSO, the Building and Construction ( covering mainly materials and wages) Index also increased by 1.3% last month and by 9.2% on the same month last year.
Jillian Delaney, statistician with the CSO, said wholesale price inflation showed signs of levelling off in February 2023.
She said there had been no change to the overall producer price index for the manufacturing industries in the month.
“The price index for export sales was the same as for January 2023, while the index for home sales rose by 0.1% in the month,” she said.
“Producer prices for products sold on the domestic market are now 10.6% higher than they were in February 2022, with export producer prices rising by 3.1% and overall producer prices by 3.6% higher in the year.
“While producer prices in the Food Products index showed no change in the month, this overall index was still 6.2% higher than in February 2022.
“Several food categories were also still significantly higher in February 2023 compared with the same month in 2022, including dairy products (+23.8%), fish and fish products (+18.2%) and fruit and vegetables (+18.2%),” Delaney added.
However, the latest CSO index also highlighted that wholesale electricity prices decreased by 1.8% in February 2023 and were 9.2% lower than in February 2022.