The annual inflation rate slowed to 1.9% in August, 0.6 percentage points less than in July, according to a rapid estimate by the National Statistics Institute (INE) published this Friday.
“Based on the information collected so far, the year-on-year rate of change in the consumer price index (IPC) will slow to 1.9% in August 2024, 0.6 percentage points (pp) lower than observed in 2024 a month earlier,” the National Statistics Office said in a statement.
Thus, inflation in Portugal returned below 2%, which has not happened since December 2023.
The core inflation gauge, which excludes the most volatile prices such as unprocessed food and energy, “showed a 2.4% decline (the same as the previous month).”
INE also points out that the fluctuation of the energy index “decreased to -1.4% (4.2% in the previous month), mainly due to a combination of the monthly decline in fuel and lubricants prices (-2.5%) and the base effect associated with the increase recorded in August 2023 (9.3%).”
The index measuring prices of unprocessed produce also slowed significantly, from 2.8% in July to 0.8% in August, “highlighting the contribution of fresh fruit to this slowdown, partly due to the base effect associated with the 3.9% growth recorded in August 2023 in this category,” the statistics agency explained.
This point also shows that the average change over the last twelve months was 2.3% compared to 2.5% in the previous month.
As for the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices, which allows comparison with other European countries, it recorded a year-on-year deviation of 1.8% (2.7% in the previous month).
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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