The annual rate of inflation slowed slightly to 4.4 per cent in June, according to the latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
This is compared to the figure of 4.7 for the previous month. Despite this fall, Ireland’s inflation rate remains nearly three time the eurozone average which is put at 1.7 per cent in June of this year.
The CSO report showed that consumer price rises of 0.2 per cent in June were lower than the rises reported in May, leading to the minor inflation slowdown.
The areas showing the sharpest annual inflation were health, 10.2 per cent; education, 9.7 per cent and restaurant, hotels and licensed premises, 7.3 per cent.
The EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices also rose by 0.2 per cent in the month, and was 4.5 per cent higher compared with last year. This compares with an annual rate of 5 per cent in May.