Press Statement

Preasráiteas

10 March 2022

Go to release: Consumer Price Index February 2022

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (10 March 2022) published the Consumer Price Index February 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 February 2022 increased by 5.6% on average compared to February 2021. This follows an increase of 5.0% in the year to January 2022. Prices have been rising on an annual basis since April 2021, with annual inflation recorded at 5% or more each month since October. The annual increase in the CPI to February 2022 is the largest observed since annual inflation also stood at 5.6% in April 2001.

The most significant increases in the year were seen in Transport which was up 15.4%, with Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels up 12.7% and Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco which rose by 7.8%. The annual change in Transport costs reflects a rise in the cost of Diesel (+32.5%), Petrol (+30.3%) and Airfares (+42.3%) compared to February 2021. Increased energy costs are reflected in the yearly increase of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels with Electricity up 22.4%, Gas up 27.8% and Liquid Fuels (Home Heating Oil) up 53.7% in the year.

Education (-0.8%) and Miscellaneous Goods & Services (-0.6%) were the only divisions to show a decrease when compared with February 2021.”

Commenting on monthly changes shown in the release, Colin Cotter, Statistician, continued: “Consumer prices in February increased by 0.9% in the month. The division with the largest monthly increase was Clothing & Footwear (+6.6%), reflecting the annual effect of recovery from January sales. Transport prices were up 2.3% in the month, reflecting higher prices for airfares, motor cars, diesel and petrol compared to January 2022.

The largest monthly decrease was seen in Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (-1.2%) which was driven by a drop in the prices of Alcoholic Beverages sold in supermarkets and off licences as the price of Tobacco was unchanged over the month.”

Commenting further Colin Cotter, added: “The National Average Prices table for selected CPI goods and services for January 2022 is also available today from the CSO and shows that diesel at €1.60 per litre and petrol at €1.70 per litre were up by 38.9 cent per litre (+32.0%) and 38.8 cent per litre (+29.5%) respectively between January 2021 and January 2022.

Looking at some staple items, the national average price for bread (large (800g) white sliced pan) was up 12.1 cent in the year to January 2022, while the same size brown sliced pan is up 17.3 cent in the year. Bananas per kg increased by 10.2 cent in the year while the average price for 2.5kg of Potatoes decreased by 22.9 cent. Spaghetti per 500g was up 9.9 cent in the year.

The national average price of a take home 50cl can of lager at €2.17 was up 29.7 cent on average from January 2021 while a 50cl can of stout at €2.35 was up 10.1 cent.

In January 2022, the national average price of a pint of stout in licensed premises was €4.95 while a pint of lager was €5.33. As licensed premises were closed for the CPI collection period in January 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions, annual comparisons for the price of a pint are unavailable.”

The National Average Prices are compiled together with the CPI and more details for January 2022 are available at: https://data.cso.ie/table/CPM12

-- ENDS --