The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has confirmed that inflation rose by 7.8% in the year up to May; the largest increase in almost 38 years.
According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), the areas with the largest inflation increases over the 12-month period were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (20.9%) and transport (16.5%).
The CSO pointed to a significant increase in the cost of energy driven by a 41% jump in electricity prices, gas bills increasing by 57%, home heating oil rising by 102% and solid fuels costing 26% more.
The rise in transport prices reflected a jump in the cost of diesel (42%), petrol (26%) and airfares (45%) compared to May 2021.
“The price of energy products was up by 46.3% in the year to May 2022. The last time overall annual inflation was higher than 7.8% was in Q3 1984, when the annual inflation for energy products was 4.8%,” Colin Cotter, CSO statistician, said.
Consumer prices rose by 0.9% in the month between April 2022 and May 2022.
The largest monthly increase was again in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (3.7%). However, the largest monthly decrease was in transport due to lower air, bus and rail fares.
The CSO also today (Thursday, June 9) published the National Average Prices for selected CPI goods and services for April 2022.
It shows that diesel prices rose by 40% in a year and petrol increased by 24% between April 2021 and April 2022.
The national average price for 800g white sliced pan was up 12.4 cent in a year, while the same sized brown sliced pan was up 17.4 cent in the same timeframe.
The CSO said that the price of two litres of full-fat milk was up 15 cent and a 1.6kg uncooked chicken cost 41 cent more.
Spaghetti per 500g increased by 19.3 cent in the 12 months while the average price for 2.5kg of potatoes decreased by 28.5 cent.