Inflation set to stay below 3% for several months in H2

Portugal’s minister of finance, Fernando Medina, said on Tuesday that he expected inflation to remain below 3% for several months in the second half of this year, highlighting also the expectation of a lower ratio of net public indebtedness to gross domestic product.

Medina was speaking at the opening session of the annual conference of Portugal’s Securities Market Commission (CMVM) at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, where he several times highlighted the fact that the European Commission had last week upgraded its economic forecasts for Portugal.

“Inflation will slow down over the year 2023, with the European Commission and IMF [International Monetary Fund] projections now coming closer to those the government had made,” he said. “This means that throughout this year, particularly in the second half of the year, we will see several months of inflation below three percent.”

According to Medina, this will be an “important evolution in relation to the stabilisation of future expectations of families, companies and other economic agents.”