Slowdown in consumer price drop

THE good news for consumers is that prices are still falling; the bad news is that they are falling at the slowest rate for 10 months.

The latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has shown that while consumer prices fell by 3.9% in the year to January, the fall was the lowest annualised rate in 10 months with prices in general falling by just 0.6% last month, far less than the 1.7% drop in January last year.

Over the last year consumers have benefited from an 8.2% fall in food prices with clothing down 11.2%, furniture down 6.4% and electronics down 13.2%. Overall the cost of living was down 3.9% over the year.