Services producer prices were on average 2.3% higher in Quarter 4 2022 compared with a year earlier.
The most notable changes in the year were: Sea & Coastal Transport (+12.4%), Warehousing, Storage & Cargo Handling (+12.0%), and Postal & Courier (+10.5%).
Services producer prices increased by 0.3% in the quarter, which compares with the increase of 0.2% recorded in Q3 2022.
The most notable quarterly price changes were: Employment & Human Resource Activities (+4.6%), Air Transport (+3.8%), Sea & Coastal Transport (-6.2%), and Freight & Removal by Road (-2.2%).
The Services Producer Price Index (SPPI) is an experimental release, with a limited sample of services covering a limited range of services sectors. This means that changes in some of the sub-indices for services sectors are based on prices charged for a small number of services products. This can result in high volatility (i.e. large changes in the values of the indices) which is not always representative of the wider sector. The SPPI is currently being redeveloped, and the updated SPPI series will address these issues.
Figure 1 presents the annual change for the Services Producer Price Index (SPPI) from Quarter 4 (Q4) 2020 through to Q4 2022
| Period | Annual % change |
|---|---|
| Q4 2020 | 4.1 |
| Q1 2021 | -0.8 |
| Q2 2021 | 0.1 |
| Q3 2021 | 1.9 |
| Q4 2021 | 2.6 |
| Q1 2022 | 4.1 |
| Q2 2022 | 4 |
| Q3 2022 | 3.5 |
| Q4 2022 | 2.3 |
Figure 2 shows the annual price changes for several NACE sectors in Q4 2022, while Figure 3 shows the contribution of each of these sectors towards the overall annual change in services producer prices.
| X-axis label | Annual % change |
|---|---|
| Freight and Removal by Road | 6.2 |
| Sea and Coastal Transport | 12.4 |
| Air Transport | 7.1 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 12 |
| Postal and Courier | 10.5 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | 0.7 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 3.1 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | -0.4 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 6.1 |
| Security and Investigation | 6.7 |
| Industrial and Building Cleaning | 3.3 |
| X-axis label | Annual % change |
|---|---|
| Freight and Removal by Road | 10.1 |
| Sea and Coastal Transport | 23.1 |
| Air Transport | 24.8 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 17 |
| Postal and Courier | 16.4 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | 0.7 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 3 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | -0.5 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 7.2 |
| Security and Investigation | 8.9 |
| Industrial and Building Cleaning | 4.8 |
| X-axis label | Annual % Contribution |
|---|---|
| Freight and Removal by Road | 0.19 |
| Sea and Coastal Transport | 0.1 |
| Air Transport | 0.55 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 0.09 |
| Postal and Courier | 0.19 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | 0.44 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 0.54 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | -0.02 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 0.16 |
| Security and Investigation | 0.05 |
| Industrial and Building Cleaning | 0.03 |
| X-axis label | Annual % change |
|---|---|
| Freight and Removal by Road | 0.31 |
| Sea and Coastal Transport | 0.19 |
| Air Transport | 1.88 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 0.12 |
| Postal and Courier | 0.27 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | 0.39 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 0.46 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | -0.2 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 0.17 |
| Security and Investigation | 0.06 |
| Industrial and Building Cleaning | 0.04 |
Statistician's Comment
Commenting on the release, Mary Heanue, Statistician in the Prices Division, said: "Services Prices charged to businesses in October, November, and December (Q4) 2022 were on average 2.3% higher compared with the same quarter in 2021. This compares to an annual change of 3.5% in Quarter 3 2022". See Figure 1.
"Over a quarter of the annual price change for services producer prices observed in the year to Quarter 4 2022 was due to the increased costs of Air Transport (0.6 percentage points of 2.3%) while Legal, Accounting, PR & Business Consultancy accounted for a further 0.5 percentage points of the change". See Figures 2 and 3.