Inflation rate slows down in the Eurozone and speeds up in Portugal.

September brings a decrease in inflation in the eurozone and worsening in Portugal.

The year-on-year inflation rate slowed down, in September, in the euro area to 1.8%, compared to 2.2% in August and 4.3% in the same month in 2023.

The estimate was released by Eurostat, shared by Notícias ao Minuto, and indicates that inflation with a higher rate in September is services - 4%.

"The food, alcohol and tobacco component showed a price increase of 2.4% in September, after a 2.3% increase in August, industrial non-energy goods inflation remained at 0.4%, and energy prices are estimated to fall by 6.0% (-3.0% in August). According to Eurostat's flash estimate, the core inflation rate (excluding energy and unprocessed food) slowed down to 2.7% in September, compared to 2.8% in August and 5.5% in the previous year," reads the news.

The highest inflation rates measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) in September, among the 20 countries in the eurozone, were recorded in Belgium (4.5%), Estonia (3.2%), Greece and Croatia (3.0% each).

In Portugal, the year-on-year inflation rate accelerated to 2.1% in September, up 0.2 percentage points from August (1.9%), according to the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) cited by Notícias ao Minuto. [Source: Notícias ao Minuto]

"Based on the information already gathered, the year-on-year variation rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) will have increased to 2.1% in September 2024, a rate higher by 0.2 percentage points (p.p.) than the one observed in the previous month."

As for the core inflation indicator - which excludes products with more volatile prices such as food and energy - "it will have recorded a variation of 2.8% in September, compared to 2.4% in the previous month." In relation to the prices of these products, the variation of the index related to energy products "decreased to -3.5% (-1.4% in the previous month), essentially due to the monthly reduction in fuel and lubricant prices (-1.0%) combined with the base effect associated with the increase recorded in September 2023 (3.2%)," explains the INE quoted in the news.

On the contrary, "the variation of the index relating to unprocessed food products will have been 0.9% (0.8% in August)", it reads.

In addition, the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) in Portuguese, an indicator that allows comparison with other European countries, recorded a year-on-year variation of 2.6% (1.8% in the previous month).  

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