Whereas, arising from the discontinuance of official price control in 1986, my Department no longer monitors retail prices, the Central Statistics Office carries out detailed and extensive nationwide surveys of prices, on a quarterly basis, for the purposes of compiling the consumer Price Index. These surveys cover retail outlets of all sizes ranging from the very small to the large multiples.
The most recent CSO data relate to mid-February 1996 and they show that, in the preceding three months, food prices generally increased by 0.6 per cent. In the case of bread, the rise during that period was 0.2 per cent.
For meats the position was as follows: