Prices in Dublin are higher for 66% of items included in the Central Statistics Office's bi-annual comparison of price levels between Dublin and the rest of the country.
The CSO says that of the 79 items - which include food, drink and entertainment - prices were higher in Dublin for 52 items and lower for 26. One item - table wine - was the same.
Seven out of a total of 18 meat products were more expensive in Dublin. The CSO says that higher average prices were recorded in Dublin also for four of the five fish products.
All of the ten fruit and vegetable items were more expensive in Dublin than the rest of the country. Of the other food items such has milk, cheese, butter, eggs, bread, flour, sugar, tea, spaghetti and orange juice, nine of the 16 items were cheaper in Dublin.
On the alcohol front, the survey reveals a big difference between the prices of take-home drink and drinking in a pub. For take-home drink, average prices were generally comparable, but pub prices were consistently higher in Dublin. The greatest difference was for a half pint of lager which was almost 14% more expensive in Dublin.
Petrol prices were 0.4% more expensive in Dublin compared to the rest of the country, while average diesel prices were 0.3% higher in Dublin.
Average prices for four selected services all showed 'significant' higher prices in Dublin, the CSO says. These include cinema entrance (11% more expensive in Dublin), ladies' wash, cut and blow dry (18% dearer in Dublin), gents' dry hair cut (21% more expensive in Dublin) and gents' wash, cut and blow dry (almost 42% dear in Dublin.
Dublin Chamber of Commerce policy director Aebhric Mc Gibney said the CSO figures showed broadly the same price differential between Dublin and the outside Dublin since the survey began in 2004.
'The differential is almost negligible - at 1.4% - if pub prices are excluded,' he said. He blamed the gap in prices on the higher business costs faced in Dublin and the narrow scope of the survey, saying it covered just 21% of a typical shopping basket.
