Inflation declines in February for the fourth month in a row to 8.2%

The annual rate of change for the consumer price index (CPI) fell to 8.2% in February from 8.4% in January, according to a quick estimate released on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

According to INE, “Based on the information already collected, the rate of change of the consumer price index (CPI) on an annualized basis will decrease for the fourth consecutive month to 8.2% in February 2023, which is a lower figure of 0.2 percentage points (p.p. .) to what was observed in the previous month.”

As for the core inflation indicator (the total index excluding unprocessed food and energy), it registered a fluctuation of 7.2% in February (7.0% in the previous month).

According to INE estimates, the annual rate of change of the index related to energy products fell to 2.0% with a drop of 5.1 percentage points. sequentially.

On the other hand, the unprocessed food index “should have accelerated to 20.1% in February (18.5% in January)” in February.

In January, compared to the previous month, the CPI change was 0.3% (-0.8% in January and 0.4% in February 2022).

INE adds that the average change over the past 12 months was 8.6% (8.2% in the previous month).

If this quick INE estimate is confirmed – the final CPI data for February will be released on March 10 – it will be the fifth fall in inflation in a year and a half, after August, November, December and January recorded the only decline in the annual change in the CPI since June 2021.

In October, the inflation rate of 10.1% was the highest since May 1992.

As for the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices of Portugal (HICP), in the reporting month it recorded an annualized change of 8.6%, remaining the same as in January.