Inflation rise worse than expected

While nobody anticipated that there would be any good news on the question of inflation, the figure for last month was considerably worse than expected.

The rate jumped by a full percentage point during February and at 5.1%, it represented the highest in 20 months.

The rise from 4.8% in January, as recorded by the latest Consumer Price Index published by the Central Statistics Office, was influenced to a large degree by Government decisions.