Portugal’s year-on-year inflation rate slowed to 1.9% in August – 0.6 percentage points less than in July, according to the latest ‘rapid estimate’ of Statistics Portugal (INE) released today – meaning inflation has finally broken back through the 2% limit that central banks have been focusing on through the inflationary ‘crisis’ that has affected dozens of countries.
According to INE, the underlying inflation indicator – which excludes the most volatile prices, such as unprocessed food and energy products – “recorded a variation of 2.4% (the same rate as the previous month)”.
INE also indicates that the change in the index for energy products “fell to -1.4% (4.2% in the previous month), essentially due to the combination of the monthly reduction in fuel and lubricant prices (-2.5%) and the base effect associated with the increase in August 2023 (9.3%)”,
The index measuring unprocessed prices equally slowed, from 2.8% in July to 0.8% in August, “with the contribution of fresh fruit to this slowdown standing out, partly attributable to the base effect associated with the 3.9% increase recorded in August 2023 in this category”, explains the statistics entity
INE’s release also reveals that the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices – which allows for comparison with other European countries – recorded a year-on-year change of 1.8% (2.7% in the previous month).
Source: LUSA
