The annual inflation rate fell to 1.4% in December last year, down 0.1 percentage point from November, with the average change in 2023 remaining at 4.3% versus 7.8% in 2022, confirmed this year Thursday fair of the National Statistical Institute (INE).
Rounded to one decimal place, the rate of change of the consumer price index (IPC) presented this Thursday by INE confirms the values of the quick estimate published on December 29, 2023.
Excluding energy and unprocessed food from the CPI, the annualized change was 2.6% in December (2.9% in the previous month), and the average rate of change in 2023 was 5.0% (5.6% in the previous year ). .
“The decline in the rate of change in the CPI between 2022 and 2023 was influenced by the performance of energy commodities with an average annual change of -9.0% (23.7% in the previous year), as well as a slowdown in core and food inflation. unprocessed, where average annual fluctuations of 5.0% and 9.5% were recorded respectively (5.6% and 12.2% in 2022),” INE said.
Last year there was a decrease in the average annual price fluctuation for goods and a “slight increase” in services, with prices for goods rising by 4.1% (in 2022 – 10.2%), while the average rate of change in prices for services was 4. 6% (4.3% a year earlier).
The statistics institute noted that the annual rate of change in the headline CPI “showed a downward trend throughout the year, with an emphasis on April and May, with a slowdown of 1.7 percentage points.”
This slowdown in CPI “occurred across most product categories, reflecting the base effect associated with rising prices in 2022, lower energy prices and VAT exemptions for some staple food products starting in May,” explains .
Looking only at December 2023, INE reports that the annual deviation of the energy products aggregate index was -10.5% (-12.4% in the previous month), and the unprocessed food index slowed to 2.0% (change from 3. 5% in November).
On a monthly basis, the IPC index showed a deviation of -0.4% in December versus -0.3% in the previous month and in December 2022.
Portugal’s Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HIPC) recorded an average rate of change of 5.3% in 2023 (8.1% in the previous year) and an annual rate of change of 1.9% in December, representing 0.3 percentage points. below November 2023 and 1.0 percentage point below the value estimated by Eurostat for the euro area (in November 2023 the difference was 0.2 percentage point).
Excluding unprocessed food and energy, Portugal’s HICP reached an annual deviation of 3.1% in December (3.6% in November), lower than the eurozone equivalent (estimated at 3.9%).
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.