Most beers to rise by 10 cent a pint

The price of most beers is to increase by about 10 cent a pint from next month.

Diageo, which sells Guinness and other leading brands, is increasing prices on its beer and spirits products by 2.7 per cent on March 5th. This will add about five cent, VAT included, to the price of a pint and, on the basis of previous behaviour, publicans are likely to add at least another five cent.

This is the second time Diageo has increased its prices in a year; 10 months ago it imposed a separate 2.7 per cent increase.

The news comes on top of a series of recent price increases which have pushed up the rate of inflation to 4.9 per cent. Gas, electricity, public transport, bread, mortgages and VHI have all gone up in price in recent months, and further increases are expected in postage costs and foodstuffs.

The Diageo range includes Guinness, Smithwicks, Carlsberg, Harp, Baileys, Smirnoff vodka, Bushmills whiskey and Gordon's gin. It remains to be seen whether competitors will follow its lead and put up their prices.

A Diageo spokeswoman said the increase was caused by rising operating and production costs, in particular the cost of fuel and energy and raw materials.

Publicans say many in the trade are struggling to survive the drop in business that followed the introduction of the smoking ban and the beginning of random breath testing.

Meanwhile, the Competition Authority has disputed a claim that food prices have soared since the abolition of the Groceries Order.

It said a media report to this effect was not supported by official data from the Central Statistics Office.

Since the order was abolished in March, prices for items covered by it have fallen by 1.5 per cent. Over the same period, food items that were never covered by the order, such as fresh meat, vegetables and fish, have risen by 2.3 per cent.