Eoin McGee: Inflation is everywhere we look, but we can control some things

Half of mortgage holders could now be looking at a payment increase, so focus on the bills that can be tackled

An increase in energy costs affects everything and when the cost of gas, electricity, and oil goes up it impacts all other areas of the supply chain.

Right now it doesn’t matter which way you turn, you walk into “inflation”. Whether it is the cost of gas and electricity going up by 25-45%, a politician telling us what they are going to do for us, or the opposition saying what the other politicians should be doing for us, inflation is constantly in your face right now.

The latest blow is a 0.75% rate increase from the European Central Bank, on top of the 0.5% early in the summer. The European Central Bank has a single mandate when it comes to increasing or decreasing interest rates — it is mandated to use interest rates to control inflation.