Considering the information available for September (first fourteen days), the average price of oil (Brent) stood at 91.3 euros, which represents a decrease of 7.9% compared to the average value of August, which in turn, had already decreased by 5.3% in comparison to the average value of July, although the year-on-year growth changes persisted at very high levels (72.9% and 90.2% in August and July, respectively).

The manufacturing price index recorded in August a year-on-year rate of change of 23.4%, 2.5 percentage points lower than in the previous month, when it reached the highest growth of the current series. Excluding the energy component, this index increased by 15.4% in year-on-year terms, the same growth rate as in July. The index of consumption goods continued to accelerate, moving from a year-on-year rate of change of 13.2%, in July, to 13.8% in August. 

To a large extent reflecting this increase in prices, the short-term indicators of economic activity from a production perspective, available until July 2022, continued to present high growths in nominal terms. The industrial turnover index registered a year-on-year growth of 24.3% (31.6% in the previous month).

In turn, the year-on-year rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 8.9% in August 2022 (9.1% in July 2022). The annual core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products, maintained the upward trend of the previous months, accelerating to 6.5% (6.2% in the previous month). In the external environment, the more intense growth in implicit prices of imports of goods when compared to exports (rates of change of 22.8% and 18.3% in July, respectively) resulted in losses in terms of trade, mainly due to the evolution of energy goods prices, contributing to the deterioration of the external balance of goods.

In August, the sales of passenger cars presented a year-on-year increase of 42.4%, accelerating from the 17.7% increase observed in July. The overall amount of national withdrawals, payment of services and purchases at automatic payment terminals carried out on the automatic teller machines of the Multibanco network presented a year-on-year rate of change 17.1% in August (19.9% in the previous month).

According to the provisional monthly Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate (16 to 74 years old), seasonally adjusted, was 5.9% in July, 0.1 percentage points less than in the previous month (5.9% in April and 6.6% in July 2021). The labour underutilization rate (16 to 74 years old) stood at 11.5%, 0.1 percentage points less than in June (12.4% in July 2021). In July, the employed population (16 to 74 years old), seasonally adjusted, decreased by 0.1% compared with the previous month and has increased by 0.9% in year-on-year terms (year-on-year rate of change of 1.3% in June).