Inflation – How is Portugal rating compared with the rest of Europe?

  • 7 September, 22

Not surprisingly Liechtenstein and Switzerland are the countries with the lowest inflation rate in Europe, 2.5 percent and 3.4 percent respectively. The worst inflation is Turkey with a massive 79.6 percent. Portugal sits reasonably comfortably at 9.1 percent (August), lower than Spain 10.8 percent and of course the UK, 10.1 percent. The European average is 9.8 percent. Of course, these numbers are purely statistics, how is inflation affecting your life?

Needless to say, one of the main drivers is the cost of fuel, that affects everything from your own personal travel but also such things as the delivery of goods to your local shop. One good thing is that fuel retailers in Portugal seem to follow the wholesale prices much faster than, for example, the UK.

If you look at the records for Portugal, the lowest price per litre for diesel was €1 a litre in January 2015. The highest was €2.09 a litre in July this year. Unleaded was €1.05 a litre in January 2015 while it peaked at €2.17 a litre in June this year. Prices are coming down from that peak, diesel around €1.70 a litre and unleaded around €1.80 a litre (depending on where you buy). Prices closely follow the wholesale market with very little delay.

Gas and electricity

Here the picture gets quite confusing. Recent headlines claimed that we should expect a 40 percent plus increase in domestic fuel costs. So far this does not seem to be happening. Anyone who watches English news will be aware that UK consumers are being devastated with the dramatic increase in energy prices.

How has inflation hit your shopping bill?

It’s not so easy to spot where the individual price increase are happening, but you notice it at checkout. Wine seems to have increased by something between 11 percent and 15 percent. That may be mainly due to transport costs, a lorry full of wine bottles is heavy and many of our national wines are traveling long distance to reach our supermarket shelves. Other goods are suffering from various impacts of the current economic situation.

Cre: Portugalnews

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