Annual Irish inflation jumped back up to 8.5% in February from 7.8% a month earlier, in line with a flash estimate published earlier this month, Central Statistics Office (CSO) data showed on Thursday.

Ireland's consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.6% month-on-month, the biggest monthly increase since October, after prices rose for restaurants, hotels, airfares, clothing and footwear, the CSO said.

Ireland's central bank forecast last week that inflation would grow at a slower than previously forecast 5% this year before falling towards 2% by 2025. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra)