The Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual rate was 2.3% in January 2024 (1.4% in December 2023). This acceleration mainly reflects the price increases in electricity and the ending of the VAT exemption for several essential food items. A purely mechanical exercise points out to an estimated impact of the end of this exemption of about 0.7 percentage points (p.p.) in the rate of change of the overall CPI. The annual core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products was 2.4% (2.6% in the previous month). The annual rate of change for energy products increased to 0.2% (-10.5% in December) and the index for unprocessed food was 3.1% (2.0% in the previous month). 

The CPI monthly rate was nil (-0.4% in December and -0.8% in January 2023), while the CPI 12-month average rate was 3.8% (4.3% in the previous month). 

In January 2024, the Portuguese Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) annual rate was 2.5% (1.9% in the previous month). This rate is 0.3 p.p.  below the rate estimated by Eurostat for the Euro area (in December, this difference was 1.0 p.p.). Excluding energy and unprocessed food products, the Portuguese HICP was 2.7% in January (3.1% in December), below the corresponding rate for the Euro area (estimated at 3.6%).