The latest "flash" estimate of inflation from the Central Statistics Office shows that the annual rate slowed to 2.2% in the year to February from 2.7% in January - a two and a half year low.
The CSO said this compares to a rate of 2.8% in the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Price inflation (HICP) for the euro zone over the same time.
Today's CSO figures show that energy prices are estimated to have risen by 0.5% in February on a monthly basis, but were down 6.3% compared to the same time last year.
Conall McCoille, Chief Economist with Bank of Ireland said that this was good news as energy prices are down across Europe, and households had been squeezed.
He added that now inflation was below the race of pay growth, so consumer spending will increase as people will be under a little bit less pressure this year than in recent years.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Today's figures reveal that transport costs increased by 3.3% in the month and rose by 2.9% in the 12 months to February, while food prices are estimated to have increased by 0.5% in the last month and increased by 3.7% on an annual basis.
Eurostat is due to publish flash estimates of inflation from the European Union for February tomorrow, while the CSO will publish its inflation figures later in the month.
Today's "flash" inflation figures are from the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), a measure used to compare prices across the EU.
It differs from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which remains the official measure of inflation in Ireland.
The CPI includes mortgage interest repayments which do not form part of the HICP.
