Portugal’s CPI up 1.3% in 2021

Inflation in Portugal has reached 1.3% in 2021, driven by rising energy prices, Statistics Portugal (INE) confirmed this Wednesday. Meanwhile, the rise registered in December’s consumer price index (CPI) rate of change was revised downwards from INE’s flash estimates, from 2.8% to 2.7%.

“The CPI annual rate was 2.7% in December (2.6% in November). Compared to the flash estimate published on January 3rd, there was a downwards revision by 0.02 percentage points, leading to a revision of the CPI rate of change a year earlier in December from 2.8% to 2.7% due to rounding procedures,” explains INE.

The rise in prices seen in December was influenced, in particular, by the energy sector. “The annual core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products components, was 1.8% (1.7% in the previous month),” INE indicates. The energy aggregate presented an annual rate of 11.2%, while unprocessed food recorded an annual rate of 3.2% in December.

As for the expenditure, INE highlights the increase in the year-on-year rate of change for clothing and footwear, and food and non-alcoholic beverages, with variations of 1.8% and 2.9%, respectively.

For the year 2021, the CPI registered an average rate of change of 1.3%, after having been nill in 2020. “The increase of the average rate of change of the CPI between 2020 and 2021 was influenced by the behaviour of core inflation and the positive evolution of the prices of energy (see Fig. 2). In 2021, the average rate of change of these aggregates was 0.8% and 7.3% respectively (0.0% and -5.0% in 2020),” explains the statistics office.