{"id":640797,"date":"2026-09-30T17:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/640797\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T17:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:44:08","slug":"surging-petrol-and-diesel-prices-trigger-drop-in-fuel-sales-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/640797\/","title":{"rendered":"Surging petrol and diesel prices trigger drop in fuel sales \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSustained inflation\u201d led to a drop in fuel sales in August, according to the Central Statistics Office<\/a> (CSO).<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s latest retail sales numbers indicate fuel sales fell by 2.8 per cent during the month as the cost of transport fuel surged.<\/p>\n

Motorists are in the crosshairs of the latest global energy price<\/a> shock, with petrol and diesel prices breaching \u20ac2 and \u20ac2.15 a litre in many forecourts.<\/p>\n

Before the Iran crisis, prices for both fuels averaged \u20ac1.70 a litre.<\/p>\n

The value of fuel sales fell by 2.3 per cent in the month and rose by 5.4 per cent in the year, the CSO said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSustained inflation can be observed in the sector as annual value increases outpace volume of sales,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Overall the volume of retail sales rose by 0.6 per cent in August and by 4.3 per cent in the 12 months from August 2025.<\/p>\n

Excluding volatile car sales, the monthly volume of sales was up 0.2 per cent in August and by 3 per cent in the year.<\/p>\n

The other main monthly decline was in sales of pharmaceuticals, medical and cosmetic articles, which fell 4.3 per cent.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Excise cuts on petrol and diesel could be extended \u2018into early spring\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sectors showing the largest monthly volume increases were furniture and lighting (2.6 per cent), clothing, footwear and textiles (2.2 per cent), and bars (1.9 per cent).<\/p>\n

The CSO said all sectors showed annual volume growth, with the highest increases recorded in department stores (9 per cent), motor trades (7 per cent), and clothing, footwear and textiles (6.8 per cent).<\/p>\n

The spike in inflation<\/a>, triggered by higher energy costs, is expected to negatively impact consumer spending trends in the coming months.<\/p>\n

But headline growth in the economy is still expected to be positive, with the Central Bank, the Economic and Social Research Institute and others predicting growth of 2 to 3 per cent this year and next.<\/p>\n

Separate figures from the CSO showed the headline rate of unemployment in the Irish economy was unchanged at 5 per cent in September.<\/p>\n

The agency said the seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed was 149,500 in September, compared with 148,600 in August.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The two things that make Ireland expensive: Energy and housingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There was a rise of 5,800 in the seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed in September 2026 when compared with September 2025, it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we enter the final quarter of 2026, focus will switch from the unemployment rate to the volume of jobs being added to the economy,\u201d Kate English, chief economist at Deloitte Ireland, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pace of growth here has slowed over the past year and the Central Bank of Ireland has forecast that it will rise by 1.2 per cent this year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSustained inflation\u201d led to a drop in fuel sales in August, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,14787,943,8924,5485,61,60,6000],"class_list":["post-640797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-cost-of-living","tag-deloitte","tag-energy-costs","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-oil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}