12 May 2022
Go to release: Consumer Price Index April 2022
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (12 May 2022) published the Consumer Price Index April 2022.
Commenting on annual changes shown in the release, Colin Cotter, Statistician, said: “The latest publication for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that prices for consumer goods and services in April 2022 increased by 7.0% on average compared to April 2021. This follows an increase of 6.7% in the year to March 2022. Prices have been rising on an annual basis since April 2021, with an annual inflation of 5% or more recorded each month since October. The annual increase in the CPI to April 2022 is the largest observed in almost 22 years, when annual inflation also stood at 7.0% in November 2000.
The most significant increases in the year were seen in Transport which was up 18.9% and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels up 17.1%. The annual change in Transport costs reflects a rise in the cost of diesel (+40.1%), petrol (+23.9%), purchase of motor cars (+12.7%) and airfares (+92.7%) compared to April 2021. Increased energy costs are reflected in the yearly increase of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels with electricity up 27.8%, gas up 50.5%, liquid fuels (home heating oil) up 90.1% and solid fuels up 24.7% in the year.
Miscellaneous Goods & Services (-1.6%), Education (-0.8%) and Health (-0.4%) were the only divisions to show a decrease when compared with April 2021.”
Commenting on monthly changes shown in the release, Colin Cotter, Statistician, continued: “Consumer prices in April increased by 0.9% in the month. The divisions with the largest monthly increases were Clothing & Footwear (+3.9%), Communications (+2.9%) with Restaurants & Hotels and Transport, both up 1.7%. The rise in the Restaurants & Hotels sector was due to an increase in the cost of accommodation services (+8.3%) and higher prices for alcoholic drinks and food consumed in licensed premises, restaurants, cafes etc. (+0.9%) compared to March 2022. Transport increased mainly due to higher prices for airfares (+31.9%), services in respect of personal transport equipment (+4.8%) and motor cars (+2.5%). This increase was partially offset by lower prices for petrol (-6.4%) and diesel (-2.8%) compared to March 2022.
The largest monthly decrease was seen in Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (-0.6%) due primarily to lower prices for wine sold in supermarkets and off licences.”
Commenting further Colin Cotter, added: “National Average Prices for selected CPI goods and services for March 2022 were also made available today by the CSO and show that diesel at €1.95 per litre and petrol at €1.93 per litre were up by 61.3 cent per litre (+46.0%) and 50.4 cent per litre (+35.3%) respectively between March 2021 and March 2022.
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.
The national average price of a take-home 50cl can of lager at €2.16 was up 32.0 cent on average from March 2021 while a take home 70cl bottle of vodka at €23.90 was up €3.18.
In March 2022, the national average price of a pint of stout in licensed premises was €5.08 while a pint of lager was €5.47. As pubs were closed for the CPI collection period in March 2021, annual comparisons for the price of a pint are unavailable.”
The National Average Prices are compiled together with the CPI. The comprehensive list of items included in the National Average Prices and their monthly prices are available at: https://data.cso.ie/table/CPM12
As with all months, the majority of price collection for the CPI takes place at the start of the week containing the second Tuesday of each month up to and including the third Tuesday of each month. In April 2022 this was from 11 to 19 April. Easter Sunday occurred in the middle of the pricing week in April 2022, whereas last year it was not in the pricing period. This may have affected price levels of certain items temporarily. Any changes to price levels after pricing dates are not included in the April CPI 2022 calculations but will be captured in the May 2022 CPI price collection period which is from 09 to 17 May 2022.
The CSO published the following Information Note earlier this year to provide some background information on the CPI including how it is calculated: Information Note - The Consumer Price Index (CPI) Explained
Colin Cotter, Consumer Price Index - (+353) 85 871 1635 or (+353) 21 453 5770
or email cpi@cso.ie
-- ENDS --