Grocery prices up on €2.72bn spend

Inflation appears to be re-emerging as a feature of Irish grocery shopping and bringing to an end a long period when consumers benefitted from the slide in the value of sterling against the euro since the Brexit referendum in the summer of 2016.

Prices of 30,000 grocery items bought by 5,000 households in January rose by 1.7%, up from a rate of 1.5% during the main Christmas period. Prices increased at their fastest rate since September 2016, when prices rose at 2.1%, according to market researcher Kantar Worldpanel.