Producer prices for businesses in the Italian services sector increased in the fourth quarter of last year, by 1.3% compared to the previous quarter, and by 4.8% on a year-on-year basis, new data from Istat has found.
According to the data, this marks an acceleration from the 4.4% year-on-year increase reported in Q3 2024.
Quarter-on-quarter increase
The biggest quarter-on-quarter increase in producer prices for businesses was seen in the professional, scientific and technical services sector, which saw a 2.4% increase, while on an annual basis, prices in this sector rose by 3.5%, Istat noted.
Producer prices in the information and communications sector increased by 2.1% on a quarterly basis, with telecommunications seeing the largest rise at 5.4%. Prices in this sector rose by 5.5% on a year-on-year basis.
In the transportation and storage sector, meanwhile, prices were up 0.6% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, with all subsectors experiencing growth except for water transport, which declined by 0.5%. Air transport saw prices up by 5.1% compared to the previous quarter. On an annual basis, transportation and storage saw a 5.4% annual increase in prices.
Elsewhere, administrative and support service activities showed a modest incense in prices, rising by 0.2% quarterly and 5.1% annually.
On a year-on-year basis, the segment that reported the biggest increase in prices was water transport (+10.6%), followed by other professional, scientific, and technical activities (+7.5%), warehousing and support activities for transportation (+6.7%), and telecommunications (+6.4%).
‘In the fourth quarter 2024, services producer prices on total market (business and consumer) increased by 0.5%, compared with the previous quarter, and by 4.5% on annual basis (from +4.4% in the third quarter 2024). In 2024, they rose by 3.7% (up from +3.4% in 2023),’ Istat noted. Read more here.
