The CSO today released the monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI). The annual percentage change showed a decrease of 3.8% in April 2016, compared with a decrease of 3.3% in the year to March 2016.
The WPI is Collection of Producer and Wholesale Prices for calculation of indices. The indices are used as a useful short-term indicator of the business cycle.
Monthly factory gate prices decreased by 0.4% in April 2016. This compares to an increase of 0.1% for April of last year.
Earlier this week the CSO released Preliminary Export figures for March 2016, which show that seasonally adjusted goods exports decreased by €181 million (-2%) to €8,571 million compared with February 2016.
Seasonally adjusted goods imports also decreased by €619 million (-12%) to €4,465 million leading to an increase of €439 million (+12%) in the seasonally adjusted trade surplus to €4,106 million in March 2016
Exports of Medical and pharmaceutical products decreased by €299 million (-11%) to €2,369 million.
Exports of Electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances increased by €320 million (+126%) to €574 million.
Exports of Office machines and automatic data processing machines decreased by €69 million (-16%) to €374 million over the same comparative period.
Commenting on this week’s export figures Davy Stockbrokers said “In the first three months of 2016, the cumulative trade balance amounted to €11,752m, which was €1,493m higher than the surplus of €10,259m in the same period last year. There was very strong growth in Irish merchandise exports in 2015, and we think 2016 will see another solid performance.”
Source: www.businessworld.ie
