Consumer price growth accelerates to 9.5% in October - CSO

Irish consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other EU member states, rose by 9.5 per cent on an annual basis in October, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This measure of inflation, based on CSO’s harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), is different from the agency’s consumer price index (CPI), which put the headline rate of inflation here at 8.2 per cent in September.

Nonetheless the HICP measure of price growth was up from 8.6 per cent in September, suggesting the inflation trend here may still be accelerating.

The main driver was energy prices. They are estimated to have increased by 13.6 per cent in October and by 47.6 per cent compared to a year ago. When energy prices are excluded, inflation was 5.9 per cent higher on an annual basis.

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The corresponding rate for the euro zone as a whole will be published on Monday.

Responding to the deteriorating inflation outlook, the Europan Central Bank raised interest rates by another 0.75 percentage points on Thursday, the second three-quarter-point rise in two months, with ECB president Christine Lagarde warning that it “might” take several meetings before rates peaked.

The latest announcement means the ECB’s main refinancing rate, which affects mortgage rates, has risen from zero to 2 per cent since July.