The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 4.1 per cent between January 2023 and January 2024, down from an annual increase of 4.6 per cent in the 12 months to December 2023.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show it is only the third time since September 2021 that the annual growth in the CPI has been below 5 per cent, while also being the third consecutive month where the inflation rate was lower than 5 per cent.

Excluding energy and unprocessed food, the CPI rose by 5.3 per cent in the 12 months to January 2024.

The divisions with the largest increases in the 12 months to January 2024 were recreation & culture (+9.3 per cent) and restaurants & hotels (+7.2 per cent).

The only division to record a decline when compared to January 2023 was clothing & footwear (-1.3 per cent).

Consumer prices fell by 1.3 per cent in the month between December 2023 and January 2024.

The divisions with the largest decreases in the month were clothing & footwear (-10.1 per cent) and transport (-4.1 per cent).

Alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+2.4 per cent) was the only division that rose when compared with December 2023.

Commenting on annual changes shown in the release, Anthony Dawson, statistician in the prices division, said: “Thursday’s publication of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that prices for consumer goods and services in January 2024 rose by 4.1 per cent on average when compared with January 2023.

This is only the third time since September 2021 that the annual growth in the CPI was below 5 per cent, while also being the third consecutive month where the inflation rate was lower than 5 per cent.

“It is worth noting that the release uses the new baseline period of December 2023=100, as will all CPI releases until the next rebase.

“The items in the national basket of goods and services have also been updated as have the weights applied to each item.”