Sales help to ease inflation

Conor Keane, Business Correspondent

The Consumer Price Index decreased by 0.8% in January according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to give an annual rate of inflation of 2.3% and some commentators believe this could fall to as low as 2% later in the year.

This compares with a decrease of 0.5% in January of last year and as a result the annual rate of inflation fell to 2.3%, down from 2.6% in December.