Cost of bread, milk and eggs rising as prices climb at quickest rate in more than 20 years

CSO statistician Colin Cotter said: “Looking at some staple items, the national average price for bread (large (800g) white sliced pan) was up 12.9 cent in the year to March 2022, while the same size brown, sliced pan was up 22.2 cent in the year." File photo

Inflation continues to rise at its fastest pace in two decades, with the Central Statistics Office’s latest consumer price index up 7% for April 2022.

Staples like bread (up 8.1%), flour and cereals (up 11%), poultry (up 7%) and milk, cheese and eggs (6.2%) have all risen in the past year as cost of living pressures heighten right across the economy.

The largest increases in the year to April show transport up 18.9% and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels up 17.1%. In the space of just one month between March and April, consumer prices rose 0.9%.

CSO statistician Colin Cotter said: “The latest publication for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that prices for consumer goods and services in April 2022 increased by 7.0% on average compared to April 2021. This follows an increase of 6.7% in the year to March 2022.

“Prices have been rising on an annual basis since April 2021, with an annual inflation of 5% or more recorded each month since October. The annual increase in the CPI to April 2022 is the largest observed in almost 22 years, when annual inflation also stood at 7.0% in November 2000.” 

Digging into the data, we can see just how much energy bills have risen over the past year. In the year to April, electricity rose 27.8%, gas rose 50.5% and home heating oil almost doubled (up 90.1%).

Prices rose by 7.0% in the year to April 2022https://t.co/4sxBqqTk5Z #CSOIreland #Ireland #CPI #ConsumerPrices #Inflation #Deflation #Prices #BusinessStatistics #Business #BusinessNews #IrishBusiness pic.twitter.com/k6vofcOo4E

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) May 12, 2022

In the wake of the latest Daft.ie report showing rising rents and few rental properties on the market, the CSO stats show that private rents have risen 9.3% in the last year.

Between March and April, the cost of clothing and footwear rose 3.9%, communications rose 2.9% while the cost of restaurants and hotels and transport rose 1.7%.

Mr Cotter said: “National Average Prices for selected CPI goods and services for March 2022 were also made available today by the CSO and show that diesel at €1.95 per litre and petrol at €1.93 per litre were up by 61.3 cent per litre (+46.0%) and 50.4 cent per litre (+35.3%) respectively between March 2021 and March 2022.

“Looking at some staple items, the national average price for bread (large (800g) white sliced pan) was up 12.9 cent in the year to March 2022, while the same size brown, sliced pan was up 22.2 cent in the year. 

"Fresh salmon per kg decreased by 12.1 cent in the year while the average price for 2.5kg of potatoes decreased by 9.9 cent.”