SFA urges govt to tackle high inflation rate

Tackling Ireland’s rising inflation rate must be made a number one priority by the Government, according to a statement released by the Small Firms Association (SFA) today.

This comes on the back of figures released by the CSO showing that average prices rose by 0.9% during March, pushing the annual rate of inflation up from 4.8% to 5%.

Director of the Small Firms Association (SFA) Patricia Callan called on the Government to make serious efforts in 2008 to reduce the inflation rate back to the EU target of 2%.

She said: “In the March figures what we are clearly seeing is that businesses in the broader economy can no longer bury the cost increases that they have been experiencing over the past 18 months on their own bottom line, and now have to pass them on to the consumer in order to survive.”

“The fact is that unless firm action is taken by the Government now, our internationally traded sectors, on which the ultimate well-being of our economy is founded, will continue to lose international competitiveness, and we will be faced with many more announcements of job losses, both in the multinational and indigenous Irish small business sectors”, she added.