Northern Ireland pubs have avoided a Guinness price rise as punters in the Republic of Ireland are to face more expensive pints from next month, it has been confirmed.
Drinks company Diageo, which owns Guinness as well as Rockshore, Carlsberg, Harp, Hop House 13 and Smithwicks, said the price of its draught beer would increase by at least 12 cents in the Republic from February 1.
A spokesperson for the company has confirmed the price rises will not be implemented in Northern Ireland. Diageo said the price rises are due to a rise in input costs.
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“Like many businesses in Ireland, we are facing significant inflation in input costs across our operations,” they said in a statement.
“We have absorbed these costs for as long as possible but unfortunately, we can no longer continue to do so.
“As a result, we have written to our customers in the on-trade to advise them of an increase on our draught beer list prices of 12 cents per pint, exclusive of VAT.”
Northern Ireland is already the most expensive region of the UK for lager, with the average price of a premium pint sitting at £5.29 in April 2022.
In June 2022, data analyst Peter Donaghy tweeted about the prices, saying that price of a pint of premium lager had risen by 11% since June 2021.
Mr Donaghy also pointed out that non-premium lager was up 8%, cider was up 7% and stout was up 6% within the same time-frame.
The only place dearer than Northern Ireland on average for a pint of stout was London, which had a very similar average price to Northern Ireland's for premium lager as well.
The average price of a pint, according to the ONS figures Mr Donaghy analysed, was £5.29.
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