The annual rate of Irish inflation in March 2009 fell 2.6 per cent. This is according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.
Prices showed no change between February and March 2009 compared to an increase of 0.9 per cent in March 2008.
This brought the annual rate of inflation to minus -2.6 per cent compared with minus -1.7 per cent in February. The rate of consumer price inflation in Ireland first turned negative in January 2009 .
In his Budget speech on Tuesday Brian Lenihan said the Government was expecting inflation to average at minus 4 per cent this year.