The economy minister defended in parliament this Wednesday that inflation “continues to dance on a very thin layer of ice”, despite the fact that there have been declines in Portugal and the economy is giving a “robust response”.
“There remains great international uncertainty about the war in Ukraine. We continue to dance on a very thin layer of ice when it comes to inflation […]. We are concerned about the degree of technical recession, which already exists in Germany and could contaminate European countries,” said António Costa Silva, speaking in the parliamentary committee on economics, public works, planning and housing.
The official recalled that, as far as international markets are concerned, there has been an easing of energy prices and raw material costs.
These factors, coupled with supply chain interruptions, led to higher inflation, he noted.
According to data cited by the minister, a barrel of Brent cost about $60.9 in May, down 10% from the previous month and down 35% from the same month of 2022.
On May 18, the gas price was below 30 euros per megawatt hour, while in 2022 “there were periods when it was 10 times above this value”.
In turn, the raw material cost index fell 15% last month.
With regard to Portugal specifically, António Costa Silva pointed out that inflation has been falling for eight months.
“In October it was over 10%, in June this year it was 3.4%, up from 4% in May and 5.7% in March,” he said.
Portugal thus shows a “robust” economic growth, which was even “one of the largest in the eurozone” in the first quarter.
The manager also highlighted sectors such as health, with companies exporting to more than 100 countries, which increased their exports by about 15% in the first three months of the year.
In the same sense, the agri-food sector also saw its exports increase by about 15%.
“We may have a year of good ‘performance’ for the Portuguese economy. All international institutions have revised their growth upwards for this year,” he concluded.
Source: DN
