2022 will be remembered by many people as year that got tougher as it went on for consumers as inflation hit hard and the cost of daily necessities continued to increase.
You may have started out relatively unconcerned about the cost of day-to-day living but within months you found yourself going around switching off lights, deciding what bills had to be prioritised, switching from branded products to own label groceries and curbing what you spent, what you ate and how you socialised.If you want to buy goods or services, you have to pay the price the seller sets.
Last January, transport costs were already taking off. That month diesel and petrol were up by a third, compared to the previous January. Electricity was up 22%, gas 27% and home heating oil 50%. Food producers and processors faced increased costs to plant, harvest and process food, and transport it to the shops.However, certain items were much dearer. Milk was up 33% from 12 months previously, butter 23%, eggs 21% and bread 18%.
It also finds people are taking action by switching from more expensive branded products to own brand labels in significant numbers.Throughout the year the Government took a number of actions to tackle costs, including moving the Budget forward by two weeks. The Government also rolled over the cuts in excise duty on diesel and petrol, first introduced last March when retail prices for both products smashed through the €2 barrier. Those cuts are saving drivers 21c per litre of petrol and 16c per litre of diesel and will continue until the end of February 2023.
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