Consumer prices fall 0.4% in July; inflation at 3.1%

Portugal’s annual rate of consumer price inflation slowed to 3.1% in July, 0.3 percentage points less than in June, as the index fell 0.4% month on month, according to the flash estimate released on Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), also known as Statistics Portugal.

“Based on the information available until the date of this press release, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual rate is estimated to have decreased to 3.1% in July 2023 (3.4% in June),” the institute said in a statement, adding: “This deceleration is partially associated to a decrease in prices of Food and non-alcoholic beverages.”

Core inflation, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products components, was 4.7% in July (having been 5.3% in June), it said.

The annual rate of change of the index for energy products, meanwhile, is estimated at -15.0% (having been -18.8% in June) and the estimated rate for unprocessed food is 6.9% (after 8.5% the previous month).

“The CPI monthly rate is estimated to be -0.4% (0.3% in June and zero in July 2022), while the CPI 12-month average rate was estimated to be 7.3% (7.8% in the previous month),” the release adds. “The estimate of the Portuguese Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) annual rate of change was 4.3% (4.7% in the previous month).”

INE also notes that the final figures for July CPI are set to be released on 10 August