Irish food inflation soars above EU average

IRELAND recorded the highest rate of food price inflation in the EU-15 in the year to April, and helped to boost the runaway rate of price increases to their highest level since EU records began in 1996.

The EU’s Eurostat statistical office reported Monday that food price inflation rose above 7% — almost double the overall inflation rate.

Ireland’s 8.4% figure exceeded the EU average. The only countries with higher food inflation were Slovenia (12.2%), Romania (12.4%), Hungary (14.8%), Lithuania (18.1%), Latvia (21.7%), Estonia (18.3%), and the Czech Republic (9.9%), and Malta (9.7%). Portugal kept annual food inflation rate at 3.2%, followed by the Netherlands (5.4%) and France (5.5%).