Official Portal - Statistics Portugal
      
 

Production and consumer prices maintain pronounced upward trend
Monthly Economic Survey
Production and consumer prices maintain pronounced upward trend - May 2022
21 June 2022

Summary

Considering the information already available for June, the price of oil (Brent) maintained its upward profile, recording an average value of 119.3 euros per barrel in the first sixteen days of the month, which represents a 11.3% increase from the average price registered in May.

The manufacturing price index recorded in May a year-on-year rate of change of 22.9% (22.8% in the previous month), the highest growth of the current series. Excluding the energy component, this index increased by 16.3% in year-on-year terms, also the highest growth of the current series (15.7% growth in April). In turn, the year-on-year rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 8.0% in May, reaching the maximum since February 1993. The year-on-year rate of change of the core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products, was 5.6% (5.0% in April), the highest since October 1994.

To a large extent reflecting the acceleration of prices, the short-term indicators of economic activity from a production perspective, available until April 2022, continued to present high growths in nominal terms, albeit showing a deceleration profile. In industry, the turnover index increased by 19.7% in April (26.1% in March), this nominal growth being inseparable from the current cycle of price increases in industry (24.7% in April). It should be noted that April had 19 working days, less 2 than in 2021 and less 3 from March 2022, which may influence the results obtained. 

In the external environment, the more intense growth in implicit prices of imports of goods when compared to exports translates into losses in terms of trade, which have been worsening in the last months mostly due to prices of energy products, contributing to the deterioration of the external balance of goods.

According to the provisional monthly Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate (16 to 74 years old), seasonally adjusted, was 5.8% in April, identical to the final values recorded the previous month and three months ago (6.9% in April 2021). The labour underutilization rate (16 to 74 years old) stood at 11.2%, unchanged compared to March (13.0% in April 2021). Employed population (16 to 74 years old), seasonally adjusted, decreased by 0.1% compared with the previous month and has increased by 3.5% in year-on-year terms (year-on-year rate of change of 4.0% in March).

According to the May 2022 edition of the Fast and Exceptional Enterprise Survey - COVID-19, 56% of respondent enterprises reported that they had already reached or exceeded their pre-pandemic activity level in May 2022. In Accommodation and food services this proportion was lower (37%). Also, 54% of enterprises foresee an increase in turnover in 2022 compared to the previous year and only 14% expect a reduction. In Accommodation and food services this percentage increases to 75%.


Press release
Download the document PDF (465 Kb)
Tables
Excel Excel (149 Kb)
ZIP CSV (8 Kb)