Sarah Mooney
Prices in Ireland were over a third higher than the European Union (EU) average in 2019, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Prices in the State were 35.4 per cent above the average of the 27 other countries in the EU, and the second highest in the bloc that year after Denmark.
According to the data in the CSO’s Measuring Ireland's Progress 2019, Bulgaria had the lowest comparative price levels in 2019, with prices just over half the EU27 average at 53.3 per cent.
Ireland’s price levels for household consumers were 25.9 per cent above the EU27 average in 2009. They lowered to 21.1 per cent above the average by 2011, but increased again in recent years.
The data also found that Ireland had the second smallest percentage increase in consumer prices between 2015 and 2019 in the EU27 of 1.7 per cent — less than the average of the EU27 at five per cent.
No countries in the EU27 showed a percentage decrease in consumer prices between 2015 and 2019.
Unemployment
Ireland was also found to have the eleventh highest Gross National Income (GNI) in the EU27 in 2019 at €275.5 billion, and the tenth highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of €356.1 billion.
GDP increased by just under €200 billion over a ten-year period, up from €169.8 billion in 2009.
GNI also increased between 2009 and 2019, from €141.9 billion to €275.5 billion. However, as a percent of GDP, GNI decreased in the same time period, from 83.6 per cent in 2009 to 77.4 per cent in 2019.
In 2019, Ireland had a total unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent, which was below the EU27 average of 6.8 per cent.
This was the twelfth lowest unemployment rate in the EU27 in 2019.
