Official figures show that factory gate prices rose by 0.4% in January from December, bringing the annual rate of increase to 3.2%.
The monthly rise was mainly due to increased prices for pharmaceutical and chemical products, according to the Central Statistics Office.
A breakdown of wholesale prices showed that prices of building materials fell by 1.6% in January from December and are now up only 0.6% over 12 months. Prices of energy products fell by 1.7% in January, while petroleum fuels were down 0.1%. The wholesale price of petroleum fuels has dropped by 21.7% in the past 12 months.
Separate CSO figures showed that 4,179 days were lost to industrial disputes last year, down from just over 6,000 in 2007. But there were 12 disputes, compared with just six in 2007. The manufacturing sector accounted for almost half of the days lost.
