Services producer prices were on average 4.1% higher in Quarter 1 2022 compared with a year earlier.
The most notable changes in the year were: Air Transport (+29.8%), Sea & Coastal Transport (+21.5%), Warehousing, Storage & Cargo Handling (+16.4%), and Security & Investigation (+8.9%).
Services producer prices increased by 1.1% in the quarter. This compares with an increase of 1.5% recorded in Q4 2021.
The most notable quarterly price changes were: Security & Investigation (+13.7%), Sea & Coastal Transport (+9.8%), Warehousing, Storage & Cargo Handling (+9.6%) and Air Transport (-4.3%).
| Period | Annual % change |
|---|---|
| Q1 2020 | 5.9 |
| Q2 2020 | 5.1 |
| Q3 2020 | 3.9 |
| Q4 2020 | 4.1 |
| Q1 2021 | -0.8 |
| Q2 2021 | 0.1 |
| Q3 2021 | 1.9 |
| Q4 2021 | 2.6 |
| Q1 2022 | 4.1 |
| X-axis label | annual % change |
|---|---|
| Freight and Removal by Road | 7.8 |
| Sea and Coastal Transport | 21.5 |
| Air Transport | 29.8 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 16.4 |
| Postal and Courier | 6.6 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | 0.5 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 3 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | 3.8 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 7.6 |
| Security and Investigation | 8.9 |
| Industrial and Building Cleaning | 1.5 |
| X-axis label | annual % change |
|---|---|
| Freight and Removal by Road | 0.5 |
| Sea and Coastal Transport | 0.16 |
| Air Transport | 2.08 |
| Warehousing, Storage and Cargo Handling | 0.11 |
| Postal and Courier | 0.11 |
| Computer Programming and Consultancy | 0.29 |
| Legal, Accounting, PR and Business Consultancy | 0.47 |
| Architecture, Engineering and Technical Testing | 0.16 |
| Advertising, Media Rep. and Market Research | 0 |
| Employment and Human Resource Activities | 0.18 |
| Security and Investigation | 0.06 |
| Industrial and Building Cleaning | 0.01 |
Statistician's Comment
Commenting on the release, Jillian Delaney, Statistician in the Prices Division, said "Services Prices charged to businesses in the first quarter of 2022 were on average 4.1% higher compared with the same quarter in 2021. This comes after lower annual price changes during 2021 and brings annual services producer price inflation up to a level last seen in Quarter 4 2020. See Figure 1.
Figure 2 shows the annual price changes for several NACE sectors in Q1 2022, while Figure 3 shows the contribution of each of these sectors towards the overall annual change in services producer prices. Of this price increase, over half was due to the increased costs of Air Transport (2.1 percentage points of 4.1%), while each of Freight & Removal by Road and Legal, Accounting, PR & Business Consultancy accounted for a further 0.5 percentage point of the change. See Figures 2 and 3.
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 this new SPPI will address these issues."