Three in five Irish consumers say they have no extra money left at the end of the month and half of all respondents here feel their financial situation has worsened over the past year.
These are among the findings in the latest Deloitte Global State of the Consumer Tracker for January.
However, a quarter of respondents here said they expect their situation to improve in the next 12 months.
More than a third - 36% - say they are concerned they will not be able to afford a large, unexpected expense in the next three months.
That was down 9 percentage points on the previous month.
The Deloitte Global State of the Consumer Tracker benchmarks sentiment driving consumer behaviour in Ireland and 24 other markets throughout the world.
20,000 consumers are canvassed for their opinions in order to get an understanding of their perspectives on their financial wellbeing, where they spend their money and how they select and purchase their products.
Over three quarters of Irish respondents - 76% - said they were concerned that the prices of everyday purchases will rise further.
That's down 2 percentage points on the findings for December, but it remains the highest level of concern of all the 24 countries surveyed.
"While this is the same percentage as Australia, it marks a consistently high level of concern about inflation in the minds of Irish consumers," Daniel Murray, Partner and Head of Consumer at Deloitte Ireland said.
According to the Central Statistics Office, the annual pace of inflation here eased to 7.7% in January as energy prices fell further.
