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Services Producer Prices were on average 0.4% higher in Quarter 4 (Q4) 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022 (See Table 1 Figure 1).
The most notable changes in the 12 months to Q4 2023 were: Architecture, Engineering & Technical Testing (+10.4%), Employment & Human Resource Activities (+7.6%), Air Transport (+7.5%) and Sea & Coastal Transport (-14.7%) (See Table 2 Figure 2).
Services Producer Prices increased by 0.7% in the quarter, which compares with a 1.5% decrease recorded in Q3 2023 (See Table 1).
The most notable quarterly price changes were: Air Transport (+7.3%), Sea & Coastal Transport (+3.5%) and Postal & Courier (+1.8%) (See Table 2).
It is worth noting that 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 expanded and its methodology redeveloped. The new series will be rebased to 2021=100 by the end of 2024. The old series are therefore subject to revision. The Services Producer Prices Redevelopment - Information Page has more information.
Figure 1 presents the annual change for the Services Producer Price Index (SPPI) from Q4 2021 through to Q4 2023.
| Period | Annual % change |
|---|---|
| Q4 2021 | 2.6 |
| Q1 2022 | 4.1 |
| Q2 2022 | 4 |
| Q3 2022 | 3.5 |
| Q4 2022 | 2.3 |
| Q1 2023 | 2.3 |
| Q2 2023 | 1.7 |
| Q3 2023 | 0 |
| Q4 2023 | 0.4 |
Figure 2 shows the annual price changes for several NACE sectors in Q4 2023, 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 | 5.9 |
| Sea and Coastal Transport | -14.7 |
| Air Transport | 7.5 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 1.7 |
| Postal and Courier | 3.9 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | -2.1 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 1.3 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | 10.4 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 7.6 |
| Security and Investigation | -0.9 |
| Industrial and Building Cleaning | 3.4 |
| 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 | -0.13 |
| Air Transport | 0.61 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 0.01 |
| Postal and Courier | 0.07 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | -1.29 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 0.24 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | 0.5 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 0.21 |
| Security and Investigation | -0.01 |
| 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 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (15 March 2024) released Services Producer Price Index Quarter 4 (Q4) 2023.
The Services Producer Price Index is a business cycle indicator which provides information on the development of prices for numerous service industries. This information is used for the analysis of inflation and its sources, but also for the deflation of value measures in the service sector (See Editor’s Note below).
Commenting on the release, Mary Heanue, Statistician in the Prices Division, said: "Services Prices charged to businesses in October, November and December (Q4) 2023 were on average 0.4% higher when compared with the same quarter in 2022 (See Table 1 Figure 1). In comparison, no annual percentage change was recorded in Q3 2023 (See Table 1).
A decrease of Computer Programming & Consultancy (-1.3 percentage points) was offset by growth in a range of services industries including Air Transport (+0.6 percentage points) and Architecture, Engineering & Technical Testing (+0.5 percentage points) resulting in an annual price change of 0.4% (See Figure 3 and Table 3).”