In August, the consumer confidence and the economic sentiment indicators for the EA diminished.
In Portugal, the economic activity indicator decelerated in July. The information from Short-Term Statistics revealed a less negative evolution in industry and construction and a stronger reduction in services. The economic climate indicator, already available for August, slightly recovered, attaining the highest value since July 2008. The private consumption indicator presented a more intense year-on-year growth rate in July, reflecting the increase of the positive contribution of the non-durable consumption component. In the same month, the Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) indicator decelerated tenuously, due to the lower positive contribution of the transport material and machinery and equipment components. Concerning the international trade of goods, exports and imports recorded year-on-year nominal change rates of 1.5% and 4.9% in July (-0.5% and 1.7% in the previous month), respectively. Without considering three months moving average, nominal exports and imports of goods shifted from 7.2% and 9.9% change rates in June to 1.3% and 3.0% in July, respectively.
The year-on-year change rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was -0.4% in August (-0.9% in July). In the last month, the goods component registered a -1.6% change rate (2.1% in July) and the services component 1.4% (more 0.6 percentage points than in the previous month). The Harmonized Consumer Price Index (HCPI) was 0.4 percentage points lower than the estimate for the EA HICP in August (1.1 percentage points lower in July).