Annual rate of inflation still down
The prices of goods and services in Ireland recorded a slight rise last month however the annual rate of inflation is 1.1% lower than at the same time last year, according to figures released today.
Consumer prices in May, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased by 0.6% in the month, compared to a fall of 0.5% recorded in May of last year, the Central Statistics Office said.
Prices on average, as measured by the CPI, were 1.1% lower in May compared with May 2009.
The most notable falls were in the cost of clothing and footwear, food and non-alcoholic beverages and furnishings.
Business group ISME voiced its concern that, despite negative inflation for 17 months, the CPI "continues to mask rising business costs".
“As the global recession begins to bottom out, the Irish SME sector will once again struggle to gain market-share if our costs remain high," ISME Chief Executive Mark Fielding said.
Fielding called for a Government-led initiative to reduce business costs to levels comparable to those of our international trading competitors.
“Enterprise is judged by its ability to compete. This Government must be judged by its ability to manage its costs,” he concluded.
Those sentiments were echoed by the Small Firms Association (SFA), which said that while the May inflation figure is the smallest annual drop since February 2009, this will be of little comfort for many small firms.
“Many daily business input costs were among the monthly price increases during May these included water, electricity (2.9% increase); petrol and desiel (1.5%) and transport costs (0.8% increase)," SFA Director Avine McNally said.
“Whilst small Irish businesses have taken a series of actions to regain cost-competitiveness within their own businesses, many costs remain outside their control as they are government administered costs."
