{"id":285952,"date":"2026-01-15T15:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/285952\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:22:08","slug":"annual-consumer-price-inflation-slows-to-2-8-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/285952\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual consumer price inflation slows to 2.8% in December"},"content":{"rendered":"

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the inflation growth rate eased last month.<\/p>\n

The Consumer Price Index shows that prices rose by 2.8% during the 12 months to the end of December.<\/p>\n

That compares to an annual increase of 3.2% in the year to November, while the figure is also lower than the 2.9% recorded in October.<\/p>\n

The rate of inflation across the euro zone also eased last month, hitting the European Central Bank’s 2% target, down from 2.1% in the year to November.<\/p>\n

The most significant increases in the 12 months to December 2025 were seen in Education, which increased by 8.9%, and Clothing and Footwear, which rose by 5.7%.<\/p>\n

The CSO said the annual change in Education reflected a rise in costs associated with third-level education which came into effect from October 2025.<\/p>\n

Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance was the only division to show a decline when compared with December 2024, down by 0.4%.<\/p>\n

Today’s figures show that beef and veal prices were up by 22.4% compared to 23.9% the previous month, while the price of lamb was up by 18.9% compared to 17.9% in November.<\/p>\n

The price of milk increased by 2.2%, down from a rise of 4.8% the previous month. Butter prices were 8.2% higher, down from 10.2% in November, while the price of chocolate was up by 12.3%.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, energy products were 2.4% more expensive, compared to a 3.3% rise in November, while transport inflation also fell from 2.5% in November to 0.2% last month.<\/p>\n

\"CSO<\/p>\n

The CSO also today published its National Average Prices for selected goods and services for December today.<\/p>\n

There were price increases in the 12 months to December for Irish cheddar per kg (up 68 cent), a pound of butter (up 54 cent), 2 litres of full fat milk (up six cent), and an 800g loaf of white sliced pan (up five cent).<\/p>\n

There were decreases in the price of a 2.5kg bag of potatoes ( down 24 cent), spaghetti per 500g (down two cent), and an 800g loaf of brown sliced pan (down a cent) when compared with December 2024.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere last month, the national average price of a pint of stout in licensed premises was \u20ac6.09, up 27 cents in the year, while a pint of lager was \u20ac6.51, up 24 cents compared with December 2024.<\/p>\n

Commenting on today’s CSO figures, Thomas Pugh, economist at accounting and advisory firm RSM Ireland, said the easing of the increase in food prices “should help households feel a little less under pressure despite food inflation remaining elevated.”<\/p>\n

“Furthermore, the evidence suggests that food inflation has an outsized effect on inflation expectations, so lower food inflation will reduce the risk of any knock-on effects from employees bargaining for bigger pay rises,” the economist said.<\/p>\n

\"Picture
\nThomas Pugh from RSM Ireland<\/p>\n

Mr Pugh said transport inflation fell sharply to 0.2% from 2.6%, “as volatile airfares inflation dropped to -4.8% from -0.7% previously.”<\/p>\n

“That was helped further by fuel inflation slowing to 1.2% from 2.8% as more favourable base effects helped to drag down energy inflation,” he added.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, he said the data published by the CSO today confirmed RSM Ireland’s view that November was the peak in the recent rise in inflation.<\/p>\n

“We should now see inflation back on a downward path as lower wholesale food prices help to dampen inflation. However, we still expect inflation to remain close to 2.5% next year as strong domestic demand and potential infrastructure shortages put upward pressure on domestically generated inflation,” he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Pugh said auto-enrolment pensions and a 4.8% rise in the minimum wage “will keep inflationary pressures in sectors such as hospitality persistent as firms grapple with increased costs.”<\/p>\n

“All told, we think today’s drop in inflation confirms that November was the peak, but we think inflation is likely to remain above 2.5% for most of the year instead of dropping back to 2%,” he said.<\/p>\n

The December CPI showed that insurance costs were up by 6.3%, driven by an 8.3% rise in the price of health insurance and a 1.4% increase in car insurance.<\/p>\n

On a monthly basis, the CSO report showed that prices rose by 0.5% between November and December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the inflation growth rate eased last month. The Consumer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,179,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-285952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115899802893707672","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}