Price of telecoms, gas, bread and cereals keeping inflation down

Ireland had the lowest inflation rate in the European Union during the past 12 months.

New figures from Eurostat reveal that inflation here only rose by 0.2 per cent in that period.

Belgium, at 3.1 per cent, had the highest inflation rate between January 2016 and January 2017.

Ruth Deasy of the European Commission says prices have actually been falling here across a range of areas.

"We can see the downward pressures on prices came on telecommunications, gas, bread and cereals which had the biggest downward impact"