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The price of Home Heating Oil rose by 67.5% in the month between February 2026 and March 2026 and was up by 63.3% in the last 12 months.
This was the largest annual increase in the price of Home Heating Oil since September 2022 when prices increased by 83.7% year on year.
The price of Diesel and Petrol increased by 18.1% and 7.7% respectively in March 2026 and were up by 16.5% and 5.7% since March 2025.
This was the largest annual rise in the price of Diesel since November 2022 when prices went up by 24.7%. It was the largest annual increase in petrol prices since July 2024 when prices rose by 8.8% when compared with July 2023.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 3.6% in the last 12 months and was up by 1.6% since February 2026.
Home Heating Oil contributed 0.52 percentage points towards the overall inflation rate in March 2026. Diesel and Petrol contributed 0.27 and 0.11 percentage points towards the overall inflation rate in March, respectively.
In March 2026, the Consumer Price sub-index for Home Heating Oil was at its highest level since the CSO started publishing detailed price sub-indices in November 1996. Diesel and Petrol were at their highest price levels since July 2022 and August 2022, respectively.
The National Average Price in March 2026 for Diesel was €2.05 while Petrol was €1.88.
Figure 1 shows the annual percentage change in the prices of Diesel, Petrol, and Home Heating Oil since 2019.
Figure 2 shows the price indices for Diesel, Petrol and Home Heating Oil since 2019. These indices show the respective price level compared with the base period December 2023 = 100 and are used to show price trends over time.
Figure 3 details the National Average Price for Diesel and Petrol. The CSO does not publish a National Average Price for Home Heating Oil.
Figure 1 shows that the price of Home Heating Oil increased by 63.3% in March 2026 when compared with March 2025. This is the largest increase in the price of Home Heating Oil since October 2022 when the price increased by 65.4% year on year and has resulted in the highest price level for Home Heating Oil since the CSO started publishing detailed price sub-indices in November 1996.
The largest annual increase in the price of Home Heating Oil was seen in March 2022 when prices increased by 126.6% in the year. However, due to the low price of Home Heating Oil in March 2021, the overall price level was not as high as we saw in March 2026.
Diesel has seen its largest year on year price increase (16.5%) since May 2024. This price increase has resulted in the month of March 2026 being the third highest National Average Price (€2.05) for Diesel. Only June 2022 (€2.09) and July 2022 (€2.07) had higher average prices for Diesel.
Petrol has seen its largest year on year price increase (5.7%) since July 2024 and is at its highest National Average Price (€1.88) since August 2022 when the National Average Price for Petrol was (€1.91). The highest recorded National Average Price for Petrol was in June 2022 when a litre of petrol cost €2.15.
Figure 4 details the annual percentage point (pp) contributions of Diesel, Petrol, and Home Heating Oil. This is each items impact on the overall rate of inflation.
Figure 4 shows that Home Heating Oil contributed 0.52pp towards the overall inflation rate of 3.6% for March 2026. This compares with a 0.06pp contribution in February 2025 and is the highest percentage point contribution towards inflation since November 2022 when it contributed 0.63pp towards an overall inflation rate of 9.0%. March 2022 was the month where Home Heating Oil had the largest impact on inflation with a contribution of 1.11pp.
Diesel contributed 0.27 percentage points towards inflation in March 2026, while petrol contributed 0.11pp. This is the highest percentage point contribution for Diesel since November 2022 when it contributed 0.45pp towards inflation. It is the highest percentage point contribution for Petrol since July 2024 when Petrol contributed 0.14pp to the overall inflation rate of 2.2%.
In total, Fuel and Home Heating Oil contributed 0.9 percentage points to the overall inflation rate in March 2026. The overall inflation rate was 3.6% in March, up from a rate of 2.7% in February 2026.
Prices for Home Heating Oil are collected on a specific pricing day every month centrally by staff in the CSO offices. This day is the second Tuesday of the reference month and is the same every month regardless of the actual date. Inquiries are carried out by phone or by internet. The CSO survey twenty-six oil suppliers from around the country and ask for the price of 1000L of oil on the pricing day. This supplier’s price is compared with their price for 1000L the previous month and a relative price change for the supplier is calculated for both Kerosene and Gas Oil. For both oil types, the average percentage change of all the suppliers is calculated.
To calculate the final percentage change of Home Heating Oil, a weighting factor is applied to both the Kerosene and Gas Oil percentage changes based on information from the CSO’s Household Environmental Behaviours - Energy Use 2024 release.
Prices for Diesel and Petrol for March were collected during the period March 10th to March 18th inclusive. Around 100 prices for both Petrol and Diesel are collected from petrol stations by 30 Consumer Price Index pricers around the country. These pricers collect the displayed price for a litre of both diesel and petrol. A National Average Price (NAP) is calculated for both Diesel and Petrol using a standard mean of all the prices collected during the month. This average price is compared with the average price from the previous month and the relative monthly change for Diesel and Petrol is calculated.
To calculate the percentage change in the CPI between two periods of time
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 April 2026) published an Insight Series release focusing on the prices of diesel, petrol and home heating oil in Ireland for March 2026.
Commenting on the release, Anthony Dawson, Statistician in the Prices Division, said: “This Insight Series focuses on the price developments of Diesel, Petrol, and Home Heating Oil in Ireland since 2019. This is a more detailed look at data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March 2026 which has also been published today. In the month of March 2026, we saw significant price movements for Fuel and Home Heating Oil.
In the month of March, we can see that Home Heating Oil prices rose by 67.5% when compared with prices in February 2026. This was the largest month-on-month increase in the price of Home Heating Oil, exceeding the 58.4% increase seen in March 2022. Diesel and Petrol increased by 18.1% and 7.7% respectively in March also. The All-Items CPI increased by 1.6% in the same time period.
When comparing with March 2025, Home Heating Oil prices were up by 63.3% while Diesel and Petrol increased by 16.5% and 5.7% respectively in the last 12 months.
Overall, the CPI increased by 3.6% in the 12 months to March 2026. In terms of percentage point (pp) contributions, Home Heating Oil contributed 0.52pp towards the overall inflation rate in March 2026. Diesel contributed 0.27pp towards inflation, while Petrol contributed 0.11pp. In February 2026, the overall rate of inflation was 2.7% with Home Heating Oil, Diesel and Petrol having percentage point contributions of -0.06pp, -0.04pp and -0.06pp respectively.
When we look at the price indices which shows price trends over time, in March 2026 the price of Home Heating Oil was at its highest level since the CSO started publishing detailed sub-indices in 1996. Diesel was at its highest level since July 2022 while the price of Petrol was at its highest level since August 2022.
The National Average Price of Diesel in March 2026 was €2.05, a price increase of 31 cents compared with February 2026. The average price of petrol was €1.88 in March, up 13 cents in the month.
It should be noted that prices for March were collected in mid-March and before the Government measures on energy costs were introduced. Further information on the methodology for Fuel and Home Heating Oil can be found below under Methodology.”