LAST UPDATE | 11 May 2023
THE AVERAGE COSTS of full fat milk and sliced bread have risen by 24% and 13% respectively when compared with this time last year, according to figures from the CSO.
The CSO figures show that annual rate of inflation eased to 7.2% in April from 7.7% in March.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the change in the average level of prices of consumer goods, rose by 7.2% in the 12 months to April 2023.
April is the 19th consecutive month where the annual increase in the CPI has been at least 5%.
“Prices have been rising on an annual basis since April 2021, with annual inflation of 5.0% or more recorded in each month since October 2021,” CSO statistician Anthony Dawson said.
The largest increases were a 20.7% rise in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; and a 13.1% rise in food and non-alcoholic beverages.
The national average price for bread (a large 800g white slice pan) was up 23 cent in the year to April 2023, while the same size brown sliced pan was up 18 cent in the year.
Full fat milk per two litres increased by 44 cents (24%) in the year while the average price of Irish cheddar per kg rose by €1.42 and butter per lb rose by 66 cents.
Spaghetti per 500g increased by 27 cents in the year while the average price for 2.5kg of potatoes was up 11 cent.
Tesco and Aldi dropped the cost of some of their bread goods yesterday by 10 cent amid increasing calls for regulation of grocery industry prices, and have been followed today by SuperValu doing similar.
Ged Nash, Labour spokesperson on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, criticised the two for taking the decision just hours in advance of an urgent Retail Forum meeting to discuss food prices.
Yesterday’s Retail Forum meeting was moved forward by Minister of State with responsibility for retail business Neale Richmond in light of the rising cost of food.
Retail representative bodies, retailers and government departments sit on the forum which meets quarterly to discuss issues impacting the sector.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Nash accused supermarkets which reduced the price of bread beforehand as taking part in a “PR exercise” to “take some of the heat off the, in my view, profiteering supermarkets in this country engaging in price gouging”.
This also “threw a bone” to the minister ahead of the Retail Forum meeting, Nash said, adding that he doesn’t believe the Forum will lead to any grocery bills coming down in the coming weeks.
“Based on the rather embarrassing outcome of yesterday’s meeting I don’t believe that will be the case. There were no ultimatums given to the supermarket bosses, there were no firm commitments were received by the minister in terms of price reductions.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil yesterday that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has warned against introducing price controls on food.
Education (-6.3%) and transport (-2.3%) were the only divisions to show a decrease when compared with April 2022.
The figures mean consumer prices rose by 0.5% in the month between January and February of this year.
The divisions with the largest increases in the month were communications (2.3%) and recreation and culture (1.1%).
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