Irish people paid 1 per cent more for goods and services in December than during the same month a year earlier, figures published on Tuesday show.
Rising transport and food prices boosted the cost of living in the Republic over the last 12 months, as measured by the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), which allows the EU to compare inflation in states across the euro zone.
The latest flash estimate for the Republic, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), calculates that the cost of consumer goods and services rose 1 per cent in 2024.
Prices rose 0.9 per cent from November to December, a surge that Anthony Dawson, a statistician with the CSO’s prices division, attributed to the fact that pre-Christmas sales such as Black Friday mean that November is “normally a low month”.
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The HICP is not the official measure of inflation in the State and excludes the impact of areas like mortgage repayments. The monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), also published by the Central Statistics Office, is the official gauge.
Tuesday’s figures suggest that energy prices have fallen by 4.6 per cent since December 2023, though they ticked up 0.7 per cent between November and December 2024. Electricity demand rose sharply in both months as cold weather took hold.
Transport and food costs both rose 1.7 per cent over the 12 months covered by the index.
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The HICP estimated that Irish inflation grew 0.5 per cent in the 12 months to November 2024, while it increased 2.2 per cent across the euro zone as a whole over the same period.
Mr Dawson noted that, excluding energy and unprocessed food, the index “is estimated to have risen by 1.6 per cent since December 2023″.
The CSO will publish the official CPI for December 2024 in mid-January. The office will include the final HICP figures for that period with that release. Tuesday’s figures were a flash estimate.
The CSO’s latest release followed figures over Christmas showing British and American consumers facing rising price pressures.
United Kingdom inflation for the 12 months to November 2024 hit 2.6 per cent, according to a statement from the country’s Office for National Statistics issued just days before Christmas.
The news was seen as a blow to Bank of England efforts to limit consumer price rises to 2 per cent a year, and to the Labour government elected last summer by voters hit by several years of inflation.
This week, US statistics showed record numbers of consumers were unable to repay credit card debt, a sign that they are feeling the pinch. Credit card companies wrote off $46 billion (€44 billion) in loans in the first nine months of the year, the highest since a financial crash in 2008.
Commercial lenders such as credit card companies write off loans when they decide that it is unlikely borrowers will repay their debts. Industry data indicate that low-income earners, hardest hit by the energy and food price rises that drove inflation, were most likely to have defaulted.
The cost of living was a key issue for voters in the Irish, UK and US elections in 2024.
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