The price of home heating oil rocketed by an average of 67.5% between February and March, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Last night, some Donegal suppliers were quoting €900 for 500 litres, double the amount for the same order in January.
The average price of diesel also rose 18.1% and petrol increased by 7.7% last month.
The CSO said that the rate of inflation increased by 3.6% in the last 12 months which was in line with an estimate published last week. It was significantly up from the rate of inflation in the 12 months to February which was 2.7%.
The CSO said the price in home heating oil was at its highest level since 1996, while the increase in petrol and diesel brought prices to their highest levels since the summer of 2022 in the months after the war in Ukraine began.
The CSO said the national average price of diesel in March was €2.05, an increase of 31 cent per litre compared with February.
The average price of petrol was €1.88 last month, up 13 cent in the month.
The prices were collected for petrol and diesel between 10 March and 18 March by the CSO before the government cut the excise on fuel but before prices had peaked. The price of home heating oil was collected on 10 March.
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“Home heating oil contributed 0.52 percentage points towards the overall inflation rate in March 2026,” the latest CSO report said.
“Diesel and petrol contributed 0.27 and 0.11 percentage points towards the overall inflation rate in March, respectively.”