The financial pressure these factors are putting on household finances has led to a fall in the Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Index for this month.
The February fall reverses about a third of January’s gains in the index, which measures how confident people are about their finances and the economy.
Economist Austin Hughes, who oversees the compiling of the index, said a drop in consumer sentiment between January and February was not unusual.
This is due to what he said was the harsh reality of bills related to Christmas spending and winter energy costs landing, marking the end of a seasonal switch-off.
He said the trend in Irish consumer confidence was still encouraging.
However, the easing in the rate of inflation was unlikely to be sufficient to spark a widespread feel-good factor.
Mr Hughes said fears about job cuts in the tech sector and domestic redundancies were prompting nervousness in jobs outlook.
This month’s reading of the Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Index survey came in at 70.2, a four-point drop from last month’s reading, when the index had its largest monthly gain in three years.
“Aside from the previous month’s reading, the February consumer sentiment figure is the highest in two years – since the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Mr Hughes said.
He added that in spite of the setback in the February reading, the underlying trend in the survey, as signalled by the three-month moving average of sentiment readings, continued to move in a broadly positive direction.
“Our broad takeaway is that Irish consumers seem to sense that the difficulties they have faced through recent years are gradually easing, but there is little sign they are anywhere near over,” he said.
The general tone of survey responses suggests many Irish consumers feel they remain in difficult situation and are some distance from a sustained improvement in living, the index indicates.
The index, for which the survey work is done by Core Research, indicated that elevated energy costs were still a major issue for most Irish consumers, the independent economist said.
“Consumers were more nervous in relation to the outlook for household finances in February,” Mr Hughes said.
“The survey period saw some high-profile increases in health insurance. It also saw expectations for early interest-rate cuts all but disappear and it seems that motor fuel and heating oil costs moved somewhat higher.
“In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the outlook for household finances weakened.”
A special question as part of the survey on savings revealed that roughly one in three consumers are saving regularly.
However, a similar number are unable to save at all, the Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Index found.
Rainy-day emergency funds are the most common reason for saving at present. Funding a holiday is the second most common reason cited by people for putting money aside.
Savings capacity is greater among those on higher incomes, with comparatively more high-income consumers indicating they saved regularly and relatively few signalling an inability to save.
Savings capacity was less common among those citing difficulties making ends meet at present.
The ability to save is at its lowest among those aged 45 to 54.
Dublin consumers also signalled greater savings capacity than their counterparts in the rest of Ireland, while slightly greater savings capacity was indicated by male respondents than by females.
Roughly two in three consumers said they paid credit card bills in full each month.
About one in six consumers are incurring extra credit card costs through minimum or late-payments fees, over-limit spending fees or because of charges for cash advances.
