The Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual rate was 2.1% in September 2024 (1.9% in August). The annual core inflation rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products was 2.8% (2.4% in the previous month). The annual rate of change for energy products decreased to -3.5% (-1.5% in August), mainly as a combination of the monthly decrease in Fuels and lubricants (-1.0%) with the base effect of the increase registered in September 2023 (3.2%). The estimated rate for unprocessed food was 0.8% (the same value as in the previous month).
The CPI monthly rate was 1.3% (-0.3% in the previous month and 1.1% in September 2023), while the CPI 12-month average rate was 2.2% (2.3% in August).
In September 2024, the Portuguese Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) annual rate was 2.6% (1.8 % in the previous month). This rate is 0.8 percentage points (p.p.) above the rate estimated by Eurostat for the Euro area (in August, the Portuguese rate was 0.4 p.p. below the Euro area figure). The HICP acceleration is significantly higher than in CPI, due to an increase in Restaurants and hotels prices, which has a higher weight in the HICP than in the CPI.
Excluding energy and unprocessed food products, the Portuguese HICP increased 3.3% in September (2.3% in August), above the corresponding rate for the Euro area (estimated at 2.7%).