Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the prices businesses are charged for a range of services crept up in the final quarter of last year, though they were still well below the level of a year earlier.
The CSO's services producer price index fell by 4.1% in the fourth quarter of this year compared with a year earlier, though prices rose 0.4% compared with the third quarter. The annual drop in the third quarter was 5.7%.
The CSO says prices for architecture, engineering and technical testing services were down by almost 10% over the year, while prices charged for computer programming and consultancy have dropped by 8.5%.
Prices in one of the biggest categories - legal, accounting, public relations and business management consultancy - fell by 2% over the year, a smaller drop than the 3.3% in Q3 of 2009.
Prices charged for road freight dropped by 2.2% from Q3 due to increased competition, but air transport costs jumped by 4.8% in the three months.
The CSO stresses that the index is still under development, and the figures should be treated as provisional.
