Summary
In March the Euro Area economic sentiment and the consumer confidence indicators maintained the downward movement started in August. In the same month, the oil price and the raw material price index continued to present high year-on-year growth rates.
On the domestic side, the economic climate indicator slightly recovered in March and the economic activity indicator recorded a tenuous acceleration in February. Private consumption might have been more dynamic in February, as a result of the acceleration observed in the durable goods consumption. The sales of passenger vehicles remained buoyant in March. On the contrary, the investment indicator points to a significant deceleration of this variable in the first two months of 2008, what, in February, was due to the transport material component. Most of the supply side indicators, as the turnover and production indices, recorded higher year-on-year change rates in February. In nominal terms, imports and exports accelerated in February, more intensely in the second case, registering year-on-year growth rates of 13.7% and 8.6%, respectively. This behaviour might have been partially influenced by the additional working day in February2008, which improves the year-on-year comparison.
In March, year-on-year inflation was 3.1%, 0.2 p.p. more than in the previous month, reaching the maximum since June 2006. This path is in line with the price developments in the Euro Zone, although the HICP maintained a relatively lower year-on-year change rate in Portugal.