2024 will again see an overall increase in the prices consumers will have to pay for the services they use every day, despite a slowdown in inflation, which stood at 1.5% in November.
The price of electricity will increase by 3.7% for households that remain in the regulated market, as already announced by ERSE – Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos, while in the liberalized market, around 20 electricity companies in Portugal have not yet revealed their prices. I’ll practice.
Motorway tolls are expected to rise by 2.04% in 2024 and rents will be renewed by 6.94%, the highest since 1994, with the rise partly mitigated by increased support for tenants and shares income, which may reduce the IRS. .
Already known price updates for this year are as follows:
Bread
The price of bread will rise again next year due to rising production costs, the Association of Trade and Industry of Bakery, Confectionery and Similar Products (ACIP) told Lusa.
“Adjustments will have to be made to selling prices to mitigate the increase in input costs,” ACIP Supervisory Board President Helder Pires said in response to Lusa, without specifying the figures.
In addition to raw material prices, the sector has also been hit by wage costs, which also points to difficulties in recruiting labor.
Electricity
The price of electricity on the regulated market in January will rise by 3.7% compared to December, higher than the ERSE – Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos forecast in October.
This increase in transition tariffs for sales to end consumers slows down the work of those “who remain on the regulated market (representing 6.3% of total consumption and 936 thousand customers at the end of October 2023) or who, being on the free market, have chosen a comparable bet.”
In terms of the average annual change in transition tariffs sold to end-customers on low normal voltage (LVN) networks, this is 2.9%, and “these increases are in line with the inflation forecast for 2024, representing zero change in real terms.” “, he pointed out.
“This tariff increase, higher than that announced in October, is due to a larger difference in the cost of PRG products than originally anticipated,” the regulator explained.
In the liberalized market, only EDP Comercial announced that it would reduce its “energy” component by 21% from January due to “more favorable market conditions” in an attempt to mitigate increases in network access tariffs. but without predicting the final rates.
Gas
Natural gas rates for households in the regulated market rose 0.6% in October compared to prices set in September.
Compared to the average gas price of the previous year (2022-2023), the final selling price for consumers of the regulated market increased by an average of 1.3%.
This increase implied an average monthly increase of ten to 15 cents for the two most representative categories of clients: couples with two children and couples without children, respectively.
Galp, in turn, increased prices by an average of 4%, and EDP cut gas prices by about 20% starting in October.
Lace
Rents will reset by 6.94% in 2024, the highest since 1994, with that increase partially offset by increased renter support and the portion of rents that the IRS can cut.
In contrast to what happened in 2023, when rental rates were limited to 2%, in 2024 they could rise in line with the inflation rate that guides their renewal and which, according to the value calculated by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) ), is 6.94%.
However, for some tenants the increase may be more pronounced because the law allows the landlord to add the cost of the previous two years to that cost if they choose not to renew the rent in 2022 and 2022.
In these cases, 6.94% may be added to the 2% allowed in 2023 and 0.43% for the previous year. But it may also happen that the increase will not happen, since the rent renewal is not mandatory and the landlord can refuse it.
Payment for travel
Inflation, which serves as a benchmark for the annual update of toll data, points to an increase of 1.94% in 2024, to which must be added the 0.1% that concessionaires can apply as compensation for the price increase limit imposed on them in 2023.
Thus, combining the inflation rate that serves as a benchmark for toll increases with its expected counterpart results in an increase of 2.04%, which is less than half the increase seen in 2023.
But the arrival of the new year will also bring price reductions, especially in regard to tolls on some sections and subsections of the old SCUTs in the interior and in the Algarve.
Transport
CP (Comboios de Portugal) has announced new prices for 2024: an average increase of 6.25% for tickets on Alfa Pendular and Celta and 6.43% for the rest.
According to a statement published by CP, “the cost of subscriptions and passes will not change.”
Taking into account the new fares that come into force on January 1, an Alfa Pendular ticket between Lisbon and Porto in second class one way, for example, will rise in price from 31.90 to 33.90 euros.
The same route, but on Intercidades, now costs €26.85, down from the current €25.25.
Navegante passes for circulation in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (AML) will maintain their price in 2024, but for those who do not have a monthly pass, travel on the capital’s metro will become more expensive: new tariffs for irregular tickets will be updated on January 1, and in the case of a ticket on the metro (and Carris if purchased in advance) it will cost €1.80, down from €1.65 so far, representing an increase of 9% or 15 cents.
Telecommunications
Three major telecoms operators Meo (Altice Portugal), NOS and Vodafone Portugal will raise prices next year after regulator Anacom asked a month ago to “contain” the increase.
According to information available on the website, Meo “will update its prices in accordance with the current contractual conditions.” Regarding the monthly fee for mobile postpaid services, the update is effective January 1, 2024, with a contractual minimum charge of 50 cents inclusive of VAT.
On February 1, monthly payments for fixed television and convergent services will be updated.
“Additional mobile cards will be subject to a contractually agreed upon minimum value of 50 cents (incl. VAT),” Meo’s website states.
In turn, NOS explains that “the inflationary context is exacerbating costs in the communications sector” and that in this context “this will lead to an update in service prices,” according to the IPC.
“This update applies to the monthly service fee as well as additional cap fees” and “the new prices will take effect on February 1, 2024, and each customer will be able to review their specific update on the NOS website from January 23, 2024.” “, he adds.
Vodafone Portugal also states on its website that it will update the prices of its telecommunications services from 1 February 2024, with the increase calculated using IPC.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.