Inflation highest since 1994

Portugal’s National Statistics Institute (INE) has confirmed this week that the inflation rate of 5.3% is the highest since 1994.

The rate which referred to March was 1.1% higher than in February this year, with price increases across the board, but higher for energy and fuel.
“Aggregated cost increases for energy products showed a variation rate of 19.8% (15% in February), which was the highest value since February 1991, while the index for non-processed foodstuffs saw a like-for-like variation of 5.8% (3.7% in February)”, states the INE.
Food prices are rising. The non-processed food products index rose 5.8% in March when the like-for-like variation in March had been 3.7%.
According to the INE, energy inflation has shot up by around 20% as a direct consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions.