The Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual rate decreased to 7.4% in March 2023 (8.2% in February 2023). This deceleration mainly reflects the base effect related to the price increases, registered in March 2022. The annual core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products was 7.0% (7.2% in the previous month). The annual rate of change for energy products decreased to -4.4% (1.9% in February 2023), the first negative value since February 2021, and the index for unprocessed food was 19.3% (20.1% in the previous month).

The CPI monthly rate was 1.7% (0.3% in February and 2.5% in March 2022), while the CPI 12-month average rate was 8.7% (8.6% in the previous month). 

In March 2023, the Portuguese Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) annual rate was 8.0% (8.6% in the previous month). This rate is 1.1 percentage points (p.p.) above the figure estimated by Eurostat for the Euro area (in February, this difference was 0.1 p.p.). Excluding energy and unprocessed food products, the Portuguese HICP was 8.1% in March (8.0% in February), above the corresponding rate for the Euro area (estimated at 7.5%).