Wholesale prices, as measured by the manufacturing output index, rose by 0.9 per cent last month, the biggest monthly increase since March 1995. The annual rate of increase last month was 1 per cent, compared to a 0.2 per cent fall the previous month, according to the Central Statistics Office figures. While too much cannot be read out of one month's figures, analysts will now be closely watching future month's figures to assess if an upward trend is starting, which could feed through to consumer prices.