DUBLIN - Annual Irish residential property price growth hit a fresh seven-year high of 15.2% in March, up from 15.1% a month earlier, Central Statistics Office data showed on Monday.

Prices rose by 12.7% year-on-year in Dublin and by 17.3% outside the capital. Overall, prices edged closer to passing the credit-fuelled peak of 2007 and are just 2.1% below the record level reached before a spectacular property crash.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra)