The Isle of Man’s annual rate of inflation has dipped.

December’s figures were published today.

It stood at 7.4% for December 2022, down from 7.9% in November 2022.

The wide category ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ continues to be the biggest contributor to the rate of inflation, with an increase of 22.9%, with gas seeing the biggest increase in this category of 60.9%.

The rise in ‘oil and other fuels’ – encompassing heating oil – is 57.3%.

Petrol and oil is up 16.5% year on year.

‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ has seen the second biggest increase, contributing 13.1% to the overall consumer prices index, with prices rising 0.8% on the previous month. Butter is 29% more expensive than 12 months ago.

Sugar and preserves are up 23.9% and milk is up 22.9%.

The third biggest contributor to the rate of inflation was ‘restaurants and hotels’ contributing 11.8% to the overall CPI.

Catering has seen the biggest increase in this category 13.5%.

Bus fares are cheaper thanks to a government subsidy and air tickets are down 4% since December 2021 but sea travel rose by 16.2%.

CPI inflation peaked in July at 10.8%.

Inflation measured by the Retail Prices Index, which uses different criteria, is 9.7% for December.