Figures released by the Central Statistics Office show the annual rate of inflation climbed to 5.2% in January, its highest level for almost six years.
The rate compares with 4.9% in December, but is not as high as some economists had expected.
As expected the price of electricity and fuel, and the higher costs of borrowing money because of interest rate rises, have led to a substantial rise in inflation.
Those prices did go up, but their rise was offset by a drop in prices in other areas.
Post-Christmas sales saw a drop in clothing and footwear prices, which fell by 14% in January, and household goods, which dropped by 2.6%.
Meanwhile in the year to January the price of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 23.2%. Alcoholic drinks and cigarettes went up by 5.5%.
For last month's reading the Central Statistics Office updated the basket of goods it uses to measure how prices change - this is to better reflect what we are spending money on.
In the past it reviewed what items it priced every seven years. Now it is updating the list of items every five years. This is because the pace of life is changing so fast in Ireland and a review every five years gives a more accurate picture of prices.
Out of a total of 613 items, 33 were taken off and 36 were put on.
Among the changes, tinned peaches are replaced on the list by tinned fruit, loose tea has been changed for speciality teas and MP3 players have replaced the Walkman.
Other new items include yoghurt drinks, digital cameras, fresh or chilled Indian or Chinese meals, cereal breakfast bars and replica sports jerseys.
The items which have been deleted include streaky rashers, cooking fat, men's working boots, CD players, video recorder/players, audio and video cassettes and public telephones.
Click here to view the full list of basket changes (pdf format)
