Official figures show that factory gate prices fell by 2.4% in December from November, mainly due to falls in the prices chemicals and pharmaceutical products. This was the first monthly fall since July last year.
The Central Statistics Office said that, as a result, there was an annual increase of 2.2% in wholesale prices, a big drop from November's 5.2% annual rise. Factory gate prices measure the price of goods before they reach consumers.
A breakdown of wholesale prices showed that prices of petroleum fuels plunged by 14% from November, while energy product prices dropped by 3.5%.
Prices of building and construction materials dropped by 0.7% in December, while prices of capital goods fell by 0.4%.
