In April, consumer price inflation in Ireland decreased to its lowest level in more than two and a half years, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office. Meanwhile, separate government data revealed that there was a significant increase in industrial production in March following declines in the preceding two months.
The consumer price index increased by 2.6 percent on a year-over-year basis in April, a slower pace than March's 2.9 percent increase. Furthermore, this was the lowest rate of inflation since July 2021, when prices increased by 2.2 percent.
The rate of annual price growth for food and non-alcoholic beverages slowed to 2.7 percent from 3.0 percent. Meanwhile, the costs related to recreation and culture grew at a slower pace of 5.2 percent. Conversely, the cost of clothing and footwear declined by 6.7 percent.
The European Union-harmonised inflation also decreased slightly to 1.6 percent in April from 1.7 percent in the previous month. On a month-over-month basis, consumer prices in April increased by 0.2 percent, a slower pace than the 0.5 percent increase seen in March. The HICP also recorded a rise of 0.2 percent.
Irish industrial production saw a significant increase of 35.2 percent on a year-over-year basis in March, this contrasted the 34.7 percent decline seen the previous month. Likewise, manufacturing output experienced a strong rebound, surging by 35.6 percent from last year after declining by 37.5 percent a month earlier. On a month-over-month basis, production in the manufacturing industries rose by 15.7 percent in March.
