Passenger air transport prices fell by 7.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with the previous quarter, yet the year-on-year decline was much smaller, at 0.7% for the same period of 2022, according to a report released this Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Among the fifteen activities in the services sector for which the INE calculates price indices, six saw a reduced annual rate in the fourth quarter of the previous year, another six recorded increases, and three remained stable.
These figures come from the Services Sector Price Index, which is designed to provide quarterly indices showing how the prices of services provided to companies by each sector evolve from the producer’s viewpoint.
Within the activities that cut their annual rate the most compared with the fourth quarter of 2022, advertising stood out by shaving 7.4 points off its annual rate, dropping to -0.5%, while employment-related activities posted an annual rate of 2.1%, seven tenths lower than in the previous quarter.
On the rise side, passenger air transport led the quarterly gains, with its year-over-year rate improving by 1.6 points to -0.7%, and telecommunications posted an annual rate of 4.3%, which was 1.3 points higher than in the third quarter of 2023.
Regarding quarterly variation (fourth quarter of 2023 over the third quarter of the same year), the steepest price declines occurred in passenger air transport at -7.9% and sea freight transport at -0.4%.
Among the activities that recorded price increases on a quarterly basis, advertising rose by 6%, telecommunications by 1.2%, and security and investigative activities by 0.8%.