Rents and car insurance continue to soar

The costs of private rents charged by landlords have now swept past boom-time levels, motor insurance costs have continued to rise even as the prices of a host of other goods have fallen.

The CSO figures showed that the overall inflation measure of goods and services in the economy, the consumer price index, tumbled by 0.5% last month and fell 0.3% in the year to September.

That reflects the huge drop in world crude oil prices, which have halved in the past year, and led to the sharp falls in a range of goods and services, including transport and food.