Ireland’s annual inflation rate eased in December to 8.2%, according to an estimate published by the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat.

The Irish figures for the EU harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) are compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), and they compare with a figure of 9% in November.

A breakdown shows that energy prices in Ireland are estimated to have dropped by 6.5% in December, but that still leaves them up more than 34% over the 12-month period.

Spain has lowest inflation

The Irish rate of inflation for December is below the 9.2% estimated for the whole euro zone, which was down from 10.1% in November.

Six of the 19 euro-zone countries had inflation rates lower than Ireland in December, with Spain lowest at 5.6%. Latvia had the highest figure (20.7%).

Eurostat also found that energy prices had fallen by 6.5% in the euro zone during December, giving an annual increase of 25.7%.

The HICP measure differs from the CSO’s official measure of inflation in Ireland, the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Motor slump hits retail sales

Separate CSO figures showed that the volume of retail sales fell by 1.4% in November, and by 4.2% over the 12 months to November.

November was the seventh month in a row in which the annual volume figure was negative.

The monthly figures were affected by a 9% slump in the motor sector.

Excluding this, the volume of sales rose by 3.5% in November.

Sales of clothing and footwear jumped by almost 20% compared with October, while sales of electrical goods were up 4.4%. Bar sales, however, dropped by more than 11%.