There has been a 7 per cent increase in the cost of day-to-day items and services in the past 12 months, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks the average prices paid by households for goods and services, rose by 7 per cent in the year to April, increasing at a faster rate than the 12 months up to March 2022, when it rose by 6.7 per cent.
This is the largest annual increase in the CPI since November 2000, when annual inflation also stood at 7 per cent.
The largest increases were in the categories transport (up 18.9 per cent) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (up 17.1 per cent).
"The annual change in transport costs reflects a rise in the cost of diesel (up 40.1 per cent), petrol (up 23.9 per cent), purchase of motor cars (up 12.7 per cent) and airfares ( up 92.7 per cent) compared to April 2021," CSO statistician Colin Cotter said.
“Increased energy costs are reflected in the yearly increase of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels with electricity up 27.8 per cent, gas up 50.5 per cent, liquid fuels (home heating oil) up 90.1 per cent and solid fuels up 24.7 per cent in the year.”
Consumer prices rose by 0.9 per cent between March and April alone. The largest increases during the month of April were in the categories clothing and footwear (up 3.9 per cent), communications (up 2.9 per cent), restaurants and hotels (up 1.7 per cent) and transport (up 1.7 per cent).
The CSO has also published the National Average Prices for some CPI goods and services for March.
Mr Cotter said: “Looking at some staple items, the national average price for bread (large, 800g, white, sliced pan) was up 12.9 cent in the year to March 2022, while the same size, brown sliced pan was up 22.2 cent in the year.
“Fresh salmon per kg decreased by 12.1 cent in the year while the average price for 2.5kg of potatoes decreased by 9.9 cent.”
