DUBLIN – Annual inflation in Ireland neared an almost 40-year high of 6.7% in March, a jump from 5.6% a month earlier on the back of soaring energy prices, data from the Central Statistics Office showed on Thursday.
Diesel and petrol rocketed by 46% and 35% respectively year-on-year while food prices rose by 3.1%. Prices overall were 1.9% higher than February, the fastest month-on-month rise since monthly figures were first collected in 1997.
Ireland’s central bank forecast this week that price growth would peak at 7.7% in the second quarter and remain above 7% for the third quarter before declining to 5.1% in the final three months of the year. Annual Irish inflation briefly touched 7% in 2000 and was last above that level in 1984.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
