Inflation last month remained high, but it was lower than in March, official figures issued on Tuesday show.

The National Statistics Office said the annual rate of inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index was 5.8 per cent in April down from 7.0 per cent in March.

The 12-month moving average rate for April stood at 6.9 per cent .

In April 2023, the largest upward impact on annual inflation was registered in the Food Index (+2.20 percentage points), largely due to higher prices of restaurant services. The second and third largest impacts were measured in the Housing Index (+0.81 percentage points) and the Transport and communication Index (+0.56 percentage points), mainly on account of higher prices of house maintenance services and air fares, respectively.

A downward impact on annual inflation was registered in the Clothing and footwear Index (-0.08 percentage points), mainly due to lower prices of garments

Inflation last month saw its biggest drop in a year.

The Food Index registered the highest annual inflation rate at 10.2 per cent, of which Food excluding restaurant services and take-aways registered an annual rate of 11.2 per cent and restaurant services and take-aways registered an annual rate of 7.6 per cent.

At -1.2 per cent, the clothing and footwear Index registered the lowest annual inflation rate, with clothing registering an annual rate of -1.2 per cent and tootwear registering an annual rate of -1.3 per cent.