The price of household staples including milk, butter and eggs saw a dramatic rise between January 2022 and January 2023, according to new figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (Thursday, February 16).
Latest research from the CSO shows the “annual change” in the price of whole fresh milk was 30.6% higher in January 2023 compared to the price consumers would have paid one year earlier.
According to Anthony Dawson, statistician in the CSO prices division, the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that prices for consumer goods and services in January 2023 increased by 7.8% on average compared to January 2022.
“The most significant increases in the year were seen in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels which was up 26.4% and food and non-alcoholic beverages, which rose by 12.8%.
“The annual change in food and non-alcoholic beverages costs reflects a rise in prices across a range of products such as fresh whole milk (+30.6%), sugar (+26.0%), butter (+22.9%), eggs (+22.3%), and poultry (+19.5%) compared with January 2022,” Dawson said.
CSO Consumer Price Index
According to the CSO the CPI rose by 7.8% between January 2022 and January 2023 which was down from an annual increase of 8.2% in the 12 months to December 2022.
But it also shows that consumer prices fell by 0.8% in the months between December 2022 and January 2023.
The CPI details that the largest monthly price changes were decreases in clothing and footwear, which dropped by 6.4%, and transport costs which fell by 2.9% – chiefly due to lower airfare prices.
But it was not the same picture on the price change front when it came to household staples with consumers taking a further hit.
Dawson said: “The national average price of a number of items rose in January 2023. There were price increases for an 800g loaf of white sliced pan (+27c), an 800g loaf of brown sliced pan (+26c), 2L of full fat milk (+53c), and a pound of butter (+73c) when compared with January 2022.”