The CPI annual rate was 0.4% in February 2016, 0.4 p.p. lower than in the previous month. The deceleration of the CPI was mainly due to the behaviour of prices of unprocessed food products (which moved from an annual rate of 1.0% in January to -0.1% in February) and energy products (annual rates of -1.3% in January and -3.9% in February). The annual core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products components, was 0.9% (1.0% in January).
The CPI monthly rate was -0.4% (-1.0% in January and -0.1% in February 2015), while the CPI 12-month average was 0.6%.
In February 2016, the Portuguese Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) annual rate of change was
0.2% (0.7% in the previous month), 0.4 p.p. above the rate estimated by Eurostat for the Euro area (in January this difference was 0.4 p.p.).