Government figures show that inflation rose by 1% from January to February.

Inflation stands at 9% for February 2023, compared to 8% the month previous according to the Government’s monthly inflation report.

Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels continues to be the biggest contributor to the increase, with this category growing by 20.2%.

Gas increased by 60.9% from January to February.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages were the next biggest growers in the last month, with an 18.3% increase.

The third biggest contributor to the rate of inflation was ‘Restaurants and Hotels’ contributing 12.1% to the overall Consumer Price Index (CPI).

‘Catering’ has seen the biggest increase in this category (12.5%).

Education saw a decrease of 8% over the last month.

Air travel decreased by 13.1% and bus fares by 10.2%, however transport in general continued to see a rise (4.9%).