Annual manufacturing prices up 3.5% in December
Factory-gate prices decreased by 0.9% in December 2005. This is the same as the decrease of 0.9% recorded for December of last year.
As a result, the annual percentage change showed an increase of 3.5% in December 2005, which compares to a similar increase of 3.5% in November 2005.
In the month, the index for export sales decreased by 1% while the index for home sales remained unchanged.
In the year there was an increase in export sales of 3.7% and an increase in home sales of 3.0%.
In the month the most significant changes were increases in meat and meat products (+3.5%), and mining and quarrying (+1.6%), while there were decreases in other food products (-1.7%), basic chemicals (-1.5%), pharmaceuticals and other chemical products (including man-made fibres) (-1.4%) and office machinery and computers (-1.6%).
Contributing to the annual change were increases in basic chemicals (+5.0%), and other food products (+7.6%), while there was a decrease in office machinery and computers (-3.2%).
